Upset at education policies, college unions plan protest

Jalandhar, April 20

The Joint Action Committee (JAC) comprising aided colleges managements, Principals’ associations of three state universities, Punjab Chandigarh Colleges Teachers’ Union (PCCTU) and managements of unaided colleges today challenged Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann’s government for open debate on the state of higher education in Punjab.

In a meeting held at Hans Raj Mahila Maha Vidyalaya (HMV) College, the JAC chalked out the protest schedule for the coming two weeks during the ongoing Jalandhar Lok Sabha byelection.

“We will hold protests, organise rallies and meet the party leaders of all major political parties in the run-up to the Lok Sabha bypoll here. The government has failed to address our genuine demands and we have been left with no option but to reach out to the people to protest AAP’s anti-education policies”, said JAC chief Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina.

He said they had sought time from the Chief Minister and the Education Minister but they have given no heed to their pleas. The three primary demands discussed today were the scrapping of the proposed centralised admission portal for colleges which they said was being enforced upon the colleges arbitrarily. They termed the portal as discriminatory and being enforced to benefit the private players. They also demanded conversion of all posts into the grant-in-aid schemes and formation of Higher Education Lok Pal.

The JAC office-bearers, including Dr SP Singh, former VC, GNDU; Dr Vinay Sofat, president, PCCTU; SM Sharma, general secretary;and others decided to continue their boycott of admission through the centralised portal, meet Vice Chancellors of GNDU, Amritsar; and Panjabi University, Patiala; apprising them of the ill-affect of the portal on colleges financially and administratively. At the same time, they appreciated the decision of Panjab University, Chandigarh not to implement the centralised admission portal.

“We will meet the party candidates of all political parties to convey our message regarding our issues. Then there will be three protest rallies at Jalandhar, Ludhiana and Patiala on April 27, followed by a massive state level rally-cum-protest march at Jalandhar on May 4 against the Punjab government”, said they while addressing the press conference”.

The JAC announced that even then if the government did not wake up, they would boycott all examinations of the three state universities in the days to come. Attacking the Mann government, they said they had failed to understand which model of the education this government was talking about when this government did not have time to meet their delegation. The Education Minister, they said, was giving them no time to discuss the issues confronting the institutions of higher learning.

Principal Dr Khushwinder Kumar (Patiala University), Principal Dr Gurdev Singh (GNDU University). PCCTU general secretary Dr. Gurdas Singh Sekhon, Principal Dr. Mehal Singh, Ravinder Joshi and others also discussed the issues.

Genuine demands not addressed yet

‘The government has failed to address our genuine demands, and we have been left with no option but to reach out to the people to protest AAP’s anti-education policies.’

Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, Joint Action Committee chief