Scholarship fund delay hits colleges

Deepkamal Kaur

Tribune News Service

Jalandhar, December 10

Dipping admissions and delay in reimbursement of scholarship schemes has started showing impact on the four state government-run engineering colleges.

While Hira Singh Bhattal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Lehragaga, has already been closed, the financial position of the other three engineering colleges too is a big mess.

The staff of Beant College of Engineering and Technology, Gurdaspur, has not been paid salaries for the past five months while the faculty of Shaheed Bhagat Singh College of Engineering and Technology, Ferozepur, and Malout Institute of Management and Information Technology has not been paid for four months. The staff of Lehragaga college has not been paid for over 18-19 months now.

The four engineering colleges were established in 1995 by the state government. However, the government converted their status to autonomous, self-financing institutes later.

The number of admissions has also fallen as compared to previous years. The scholarship schemes which they had to offer without any reimbursement had further affected their financial health. Almost all four colleges have Rs 4 crore to Rs 5 crore dues pending from the government on account of Post Matric Scholarship Scheme. They were also offering fee cuts as part of the Chief Minister Scholarship Scheme for meritorious students. There had been no refund from the government for either scheme, they alleged. The professors said they had jointly written to the Technical Education Minister, Finance Minister and other officials concerned but to no avail.

Dr TS Sidhu, Director, SBS College of Engineering and Technology, said: “It is very difficult to get work done from the staff when they are not being paid for months.”