Guest faculty of colleges protest against Punjab Govt

Tribune News Service

Mohali, October 21

Assistant professors working as guest faculty in government colleges of Punjab for the past 18 to 20 years held a protest dharna at Kharar on Thursday.

The Guest Faculty Assistant Professors Association, Punjab, state president, Dr Ravinder Singh, said, “The Punjab Government has been working hard to snatch the employment of guest faculty assistant professors.” There were 1,873 posts in 48 government colleges of Punjab out of which 962 were filled with guest faculty assistant professors while six sanctioned posts were lying vacant and incumbents were to be recruited for 160 posts also vacant in newly opened government colleges of the state, he added.

If the Punjab Government wanted to provide employment to youth then it should issue advertisements for vacant posts on which no guest faculty assistant professor was working, he said. For the past 15 years the government was collecting PTA funds from children and their parents and paying salaries to guest faculty assistant professors, he added. This had burdened many poor students, he said.

Dr Anu Sharma and Prof Ravneet Kaur, guest faculty assistant professor of Government College, Ropar, said, “We will intensify protest if the government did not announce release of Rs56,100 and safeguard our employment.”