PhD holders of Punjabi University, Patiala, sell veggies, demand regular jobs

Tribune News Service

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Patiala, September 6

Alleging that 1,609 regular posts out of 1,873 post of faculty members in 47 government colleges were lying vacant in the state, PhD holders of Punjabi University today sold veggies and fruits outside the university campus as a mark of protest against the government’s failure to fill vacant posts. The scholars, who had gathered under the banner ‘save government colleges’, said there were no teachers in some of the colleges and the government was running the institutions with the help of contractual teachers.

Holding placards in their hands, students from various organisations, including DSO, PRSU, PSU, AIRSA and others, gathered in protest and raised slogans against the state government. Ravi Ditt Singh, a PhD holder of Punjabi University, said the scholars are selling veggies and fruits because the government had not filled posts of teachers that were lying vacant. “Many of us have completed PhD, MPhil, while others are MA and NET qualified but are unemployed. We are being forced to resort to such protests. Although, over 1,600 posts of lecturers in the colleges are lying vacant. In fact, there are only 18 regular teachers to teach Punjabi in all colleges. This is because regular teachers have not been hired in government colleges in the last 26 years.

The government has been holding classes in these colleges with the help of contractual teachers for long. Qualified aspirants are eligible for the posts but the government has not recruited them. Many posts are also lying vacant in the state’s aided colleges as well,” Gursewak Singh, a NET qualified PhD scholar of the university said. The scholars have now decided to hold protests against the state government at job fairs organised by the administration.