1158 posts in Government Colleges will be filled up within 45 days: Pargat Singh*

Chandigarh, October 19:

To fulfill the long standing demand for recruitment of staff in Government Colleges of the state, the Higher Education Department has decided to make recruitments to 1158 posts in theses colleges. The recruitment would be done by Punjabi University, Patiala and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar by forming selection committees which have been directed to be completed within 45 days.

It was disclosed by the Higher Education and Languages Minister Pargat Singh at Panjab University Chandigarh today to end the ongoing hunger strike of the University and Colleges Association over the demands of college-university cadre.

Pargat Singh said that recruitment process of 1091 posts of Teaching Cadre and 67 posts of Librarian in Government Colleges would be completed within 45 days. He said that this recruitment was done on  UGC guidelines. This recruitment will be done only on the basis of written test in which no interview marks will be kept. A selection committee will be formed under the chairmanship of the concerned Vice Chancellors. In order to mitigate hardship being faced by the Part time/Guest Faculty/contractual teachers working in the Government run colleges, it has been decided to relax upper age limit for these candidates and gave weightage of one mark per year subject to maximum five marks in respect of experience gained by them.

The Minister also said that higher education would be given special priority for betterment of the youth of the state. He further said that for the prosperity of the state, additional reforms are required in the field of higher education for which a committee of experts and educators would be formed to transform this sector.

On the 45th day of the ongoing hunger strike under the banner of Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers Organization and Punjab Chandigarh College Teachers Association at Panjab University, Chandigarh today, Dr. Surinder Singh, Dr. Anish Soni, Prof. Raman Kumar, Dr. Harjinder Kaur and Dr. Manpreet Singh were on hunger strike. The strike was finished by Pargat Singh by offering Verka Lassi to them.

Earlier, representatives of the strike organization and the association Dr. Jagwant Singh, Dr. HS Kingra, Dr. BS Tohra, Dr. Mritanje Kumar and Dr. Madhu Sharma had a meeting with Higher Education Minister Pargat Singh at Punjab Bhawan. In the meeting, they apprised the minister on various issues such as pay commission, De link of UGC scale, amendment of Security of Service Act on which Pargat Singh assured that the demands related to salary would be resolved by talking to the Finance Department.