Claim of Fee of Drop Out Students is not Fraud: JAC

By Tricitynews

Chandigarh 04^th June:- Joint Action Committee (JAC) of all the 14 associations of unaided colleges under the chairmanship of Ashwani Sekhri held a press conference today at Chandigarh Press Club. The member associations represent more than 1500 unaided institutes.

JAC spokesperson Dr. Anshu Kataria while addressing the Press conference said that JAC urge the Punjab Govt. to immediately amend the notification released on July 22, 2016 by the previous Govt. and shall have the calculations of audit based on this revised policy. 

He said further that according to this notification the Govt. shall not disburse or seek the refund of fee of those SC students who have not completed their course but studied for 1-2-3 years. The audit teams have calculated the objectionable amount based on this policy w.e.f. 2011-12 sessions while it was implemented w.e.f. 2016-17. JAC said that dropout rate is very high in India and the claim of dropout students for the period he has studied is not a fraud. 

The Govt. has also applied fee capping on the courses where fee of Govt. colleges is less than the unaided institutes like ITI, B. Ed., ETT, BA, B.Com, B.Sc etc. The fee for these institutes is fixed by the Govt. hence they are liable to receive the same fee for SC students as well. Due to this policy these institutes are demanding full fee from SC students.

Ashwani Sekhri further said that due to faulty policy enacted by the previous Govt. the institutes are suffering. The Punjab Govt. has also weakened its case of release of scholarship from center by terming the audit objections as embezzlement of funds and fraud. He said that deductions on flimsy grounds shall serve no bearing on financial health of Govt., which have fixed liability of only 60.80 crore per annum till 2016-17.  More than half Colleges turned into NPA Accounts/ after Farmers now Educationists on Suicidal mode.

After Farmers now Educationists have started committed suicide. Recently one ITI owner from Muktsar, Subhash Bhateja committed suicide. More than half of the Colleges have turned into NPA account because of the Nonpayment of the funds since last 2-3 years. Banks have started auctions after taking the possession of the NPA accounts. This situation has arisen due to non release of PMS from last 2-3 years.

JAC demanded from the Punjab Govt. to immediately release its share of around 700 crore of total balance of PMS for SC of more than 1600 crore. They said that Chief Minister has consented to have a meeting with JAC on 14^th June to listen and address their concerns. JAC is hopeful of solution to their problems by the CM.