Fate of 3 Lac SC OBC Students Hangs in Balance:480 Crore Unpaid,Over 700 Colleges observed Punjab Bandh

By Tricitynews Reporter

Chandigarh 07^th October:- Around 700 Colleges falling under 22 Districts of Punjab today observed complete Bandh. Black Flags were also hosted on all the College premises in all districts of Punjab. A Memorandum from all the districts was also submitted to the Deputy Commissioner appealing for immediate action plan on the release of SC BC payment from Punjab Government.

Future of around 3 lakh SC OBC students in Punjab is at risk due to nonpayment of SC OBC scholarship funds from last 2 years by the Punjab Government.

A press conference was also organized by the joint action committee in which Presidents of all 13 different colleges Association including Dr. J.S Dhaliwal, President, PUTIA; Jagjit Singh, President, Federation of Self-Financed B.Ed college of Punjab; Dr. Anshu Kataria, President, PUCA; Ranbir Dhindsa, Coordinator, Association of Polytechnic Colleges of Punjab; Charanjit Walia, President, Nursing Colleges Association; Amarjeet Walia, Ayurvedic Association; Dr. Vikram Sharma, Dental Association; Nirmal Singh, ETT Federation; Jasnik Singh Kakkar, B.Ed Association (Panjab University); Satwinder Singh Sandhu, B.Ed Association (GNDU); Shimanshu Gupta, Private ITI Association; Gurmeet Dhaliwal, Chairman, Academic Advisory Forum; Sukhmander Singh Chatha, President, Punjab Unaided Degree Colleges, Association etc and urged Government to release the funds meant for SC BC students.

Dr. J.S Dhaliwal while addressing the press conference said that till date despite of repeated representation to CM/ Deputy CM/ Secretaries / Directors still 80 Crores of around 2,86,000 students of 2014-15 and Approx 400 Crores of nearly 3 lac students of 2015- 16 is unpaid and due towards Punjab Government.

Jagjit Singh, President, B.Ed Federation while interacting with Media said that Parminder Singh Dhindsa has assured Joint Action Committee that pending amount would be released before 15th October.

Jagjit Singh added that if the amount wouldn't be released before 15th October then next action plan would be made in the next meeting of Joint Action Committee on16th October.

Dr. Anshu Kataria, President, PUCA while hiving ultimate to the Government said that if Government wouldn't release payment till 15th October than 3 lakh students and 50,000 staff of Unaided Colleges would organize a peace march from Colleges to District Headquarters.

Charanjit Walia, President, Nursing Colleges Association said that the worst part of the sorry state of the education in Punjab is that on the one hand the state government has not paid the scholarship amount under PMS on the other hand both the Technical Universities i.e IKG-PTU, Jalandhar and MRS-PTU, Bathinda; PSBTE-IT; BFUHS, Faridkot; GNDU, Amritsar are forcing colleges to pay registration fees and examination fees to the Universities of these SC OBC students.

Amarjeet Walia, Ayurvedic Association said that, Education should be made tax free. Education is a social cause but there many taxes and other charges charged from Institutions for stamp duties CLU Charges, EDC, Transport Taxes, VAT, Building access are being charged from all the Institutes.

Dr. J.S Dhaliwal further added that in 2014 our 65000 students applied for Scholarship under OBC category while 31000 applied for 2015-16.Since last many years students are applying and are not getting single penny while in Himachal Pradesh & Bihar, students are getting OBC Scholarships.