AMRITSAR: In what appears to be major stand-off emerging between the state government and the Colleges, the Joint Action Committee (JAC), comprising of Aided Colleges Managements, Principals Associations of three State Universities, Punjab Chandigarh Colleges Teachers Union (PCCTU) today accused Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann of backtracking from his commitment on the proposed centralized admission portal in the Colleges.
The CM, they said, made commitment during the Jalandhar by-election election campaign that the colleges are free to make their own admissions and the government will not interfere into their admission schedule and Centralized Admission Portal, proposed by the department of higher education will be taken back. “On getting the assurance we took off our protest rallies and March during election time and the reports regarding this were published in the media”, said JAC head Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina.
While addressing the media persons soon after JAC’s emergency meeting today at LyalpurKhalsa College for Women, he said, they never expected CM and his two Ministers whom the JAC delegation had met on May 2 and May 3, 2023, would backtrack in this unprecedented and distasteful manner. “This is an uncalled for and a surprise move. The bureaucratic fabric has virtually backstabbed for the vested interests as they want to benefit the private players in the higher education”, said JAC Members.
The JAC while condemning the various threatening letters to the Colleges in last two days said that the communication being sent smack bureaucratic dominance of the department of higher education. “Thus, as the government is failing to understand the concerns of the Colleges, the centralized portal is direct attack on the autonomy of the Colleges which will not be accepted at any cost”-
Now we have decided to intensify the agitation on the above issues jointly as it is the matter of survival for the colleges. “-All the College teachers will boycott all the duties for the examinations and evaluations of the three state Universities including Panjab University, Chandigarh, Punjabi University, Patiala and Guru Nanak Dev University (GNDU), Amritsar. We never wanted to take extreme steps and we are concerned about the students but the dictatorial attitude of the government is forcing us to take extreme steps, said the JAC members which including Principals Association (GNDU) head Dr.Gurdev Singh and Punjab and Chandigarh Teachers Union (PCCTU) President Dr.VinaySofat.
Apart from this the JAC also decided to organize a chain protests at all the 140 Colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh from June 1 onwards.
The JAC said the state government of AamAadmi Party (AAP) was hell bent to destroy institutions of higher education and now after backtracking from the promises it is evident that vested interests are weighing high on the government officials”, said they adding that the there are numerous issues confronting higher education in the state which needed government’s attention.
The colleges they said were already witnessing shortfall in admissions due to the flight of the youth to foreign countries There are numerous ill-affect of the portal on the Colleges financially and administratively.
Dr.VinaySofat said we need to ready for the major fight if then the government did not wake we will further take up the struggle to new height.