Neeraj Bagga
Tribune News Service Amritsar, October 27
Thousands of teaching and non-teaching employees of government-aided colleges in the state anticipate a ‘black’ Diwali this year as they have not been paid salary for the last over nine months.
Aided schools get 95 per cent of the grant-in-aid from the state government but it has not been released as the government’s coffers are empty. These colleges impart education to 80 per cent of the undergraduate and postgraduate students in Punjab.
The government annually releases a grant of about Rs 172 crore to pay wages to 1,450 teachers and 1,500 non-teaching staff in these colleges that are affiliated to one of the three following universities: Panjab University, Punjabi University and Guru Nanak Dev University.
HS Walia, Punjab and Chandigarh Colleges Teachers Union (PCCTU) state executive member, said even though the state government had neither released the development grant nor the infrastructure grant to these colleges, it was finding it difficult to release the salaries of the staff. He alleged that the indifferent attitude of the government had driven majority of these colleges to the brink of closure. It is learnt that many colleges have taken advances from banks to pay the salaries of its employees.
He claimed that the 1,450 teachers were working against the originally sanctioned strength of 3,600 and 1,500 other staff members were employed against the sanctioned non-teaching strength of 3,000.
There has not been any review of the sanctioned posts since November 1, 1981 while it was planned in 1978 that the strength of teachers and other staff would be reviewed after every three years.
