Teachers plan massive rallies

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 22

The joint action committee (JAC) of Principal Federation, Punjab and Chandigarh College Teachers’ Union and Punjab and Chandigarh College Non-Teaching Employees Union has decided to hold a massive rally on January 9, 2015, in Patiala in front of the hometown of the Higher Education Minister.

The second rally will be held on January 20 at Ludhiana. The state rally will be held on January 29 at Chandigarh or Jalandhar. This was decided in the meeting of the JAC which held here today.

The meeting was held to chalk out the future action plan jointly to save the higher education in Punjab. The JAC took a serious note of the unprecedented delay of 15 months in release of the grant-in-aid to 136 aided colleges of Punjab. The employees are facing serious financial hardships since May 2013.

Despite repeated requests and appeals to the Higher Education Minister as well as officials of the Higher Education Department, they paid no heed to the same. Hence, the committee was compelled by the circumstances to launch a joint agitation.

Due to joint efforts of the committee, the Punjab Government had released grant for two quarters (second quarter - 92 colleges and third quarter - 110 colleges).

The grant for the fourth and final quarter to 136 colleges is still awaited. The JAC also demanded the withdrawal orders regarding medical allowance and house rent allowance reduction by DPI Colleges, Punjab.

The JAC also decided to start an awareness campaign among students and society against the alleged anti-higher education bias of the Punjab Government.

The JAC is planning to publish banners to aware the students regarding the dangers of becoming the higher education more costly if the present policies continue.