Delegation of aided colleges meets Education Minister

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, October 13

A 15-member delegation of Non-Government Aided Colleges Management Federation (NGCMF), Punjab, and Chandigarh, headed by NGCMF president, Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina met Education Minister Pargat Singh in Chandigarh and apprised him of various issues faced by aided colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh.

The NGCMF, which is a non-political and non-religious organisation of 142 non-government college managements in Punjab and Chandigarh, has been lately fighting a number of challenges in the recent past.

The delegation demanded that the 75% deficit grant in the aid scheme should be scrapped immediately and the old pattern of 95 per cent grant in aid scheme should be restored for all categories of teachers. The payment of gratuity, earned leave encashment and CPF through the 95% grant in aid scheme, clearing of pending scholarship to SC students in one installment, taking back the decision to appoint DPI nominees into the Managing Committees, were some of the other issues taken up during the meeting.

Chinna said Pargat has mentioned that the uplift of the higher education was the top-most priority of the current state government and they would address all pending administrative and financial issues of the aided colleges with an open heart.

The other issues that cropped up for discussions were filling up of the teaching staff posts, periodic review of posts of teaching as well as non-teaching in colleges, logical reservation policy, uniformity in the admission, examination schedule and syllabus in the state run three universities, waiving off the road tax on vehicles owned by the colleges for carrying students to their respective colleges.

PCCTU seeks 7th Pay Commission

Meanwhile, a delegation of Punjab and Chandigarh College Teacher’s Union (PCCTU) from Amritsar also met Pargat Singh and discussed their long pending demands including implementation of Seventh Pay Commission wages, delinking of UGC scale and Service Security Act. Pargat Singh has said the government was serious about the problems and demands of college teachers.