105 college staff sans salary for over 2 yrs

BQ: Special aid sought

We have been taking up the matter with higher authorities for special financial aid to the college. Satish Kansal, institute director-cum-principal

Parvesh Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sangrur, December 10

Around 105 employees of Baba Hira Singh Bhathal Institute of Engineering and Technology (BHSBIET), Lehragaga, have not received their salary for past two-and-a-half years.

Employees said the institute is an autonomous college (self-financing) and includes teaching and non-teaching staff. The number of students has gone down and two years back, 138 students were also shifted to other colleges. They said the state government should give a special grant to the college for its revival. They said they had last got their salary for May 2019.

“Due to financial crunch, I had to borrow Rs 5 lakh from my relatives and friends. There is still no clarity on when we will be paid our salaries,” said an employee, on the condition of anonymity.

As per information, the institute was set up in 1995 as a polytechnic college and was upgraded to a degree college in 2005.

“Despite big claims of the state government to promote education sector, the government is not paying any heed to our repeated requests. Almost all authorities are aware of our problems, but still nobody is taking our requests seriously,” said another employee.

When contacted, Director-cum-Principal of the institute Satish Kansal said they had been trying their best for the release of grant to the institute.

“All employees have been without salaries for the last 30 months. We have been taking up the matter with higher authorities for special financial aid to the college,” said Kansal.

Employees said majority of the workers were the only bread-winners in their families. “Under stress, one of the employees had also attempted suicide but timely intervention of the staff saved him,” said an employee.

Despite repeated attempts, Punjab Department of Technical Education and Industrial Training Joint Director (administration) Avneet Kaur could not be contacted.