Aided colleges protest centralised admission

Chandigarh, June 22

The Non-government Aided Colleges Management Federation today called for an all-out fight to protect the autonomy of the higher educational institutions in Punjab and Chandigarh.

Addressing the media, president of the federation Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina alleged that a tepid response from the Punjab Government was forcing them to adopt the path of agitations as the former was bent upon enforcing unilateral and arbitrary decisions without consulting them as stakeholders.

“The latest directives of the Education Department to impose centralised admission portals through a private firm are illegal, full of flaws and being enforced with `ulterior motives’. We have written to the Punjab Chief Minister and the Education Minister, but there is no response. Our appeals for discussions and listening to our grievances have also fallen on deaf ears,” said Chhina.

“The DPI and officials of the Education Department don’t bother about listening to our genuine grievances. The top officials, who are hand in glove with private players, have imposed the draconian order of centralised admission by a portal developed by a Mumbai-based private IT company,” he alleged.

General secretary SM Sharma, secretary Agnese Dhillon and adviser Ravinder Joshi were also present. “There are no reasons forthcoming for taking over the admission process of the three state-run universities in Punjab and allowing a Mumbai-based firm to take control of the admission process,” he stated, adding that it is being made mandatory for the aided colleges to enter into an agreement with the NSDL to collect fees from students in their account and after deducting their commission fee, transfer the balance fees to the colleges.”