SCD Govt College for Boys without regular principal
Satish Chander Dhawan (SCD) Government College for Boys has been without any permanent principal since its last principal Dr Tanvir Likhari retired on August 31 this year. Sadly, the present AAP government, claiming to bring reforms in the education system, seems to have failed to achieve its goal as out of a total of 64 government colleges in Punjab, 25-30 colleges remain without a regular principal.
Organising secretary of the Alumni Association of SCD Government College, Brij Bhushan Goyal said it was a sad state of affairs. “SCD Government College is one of the prestigious institutions in the region, it needs a regular principal at the earliest but the state government is not bothered. Ever since the last principal retired, there has been no appointment of any regular principal. Though the officiating principal is taking care of the matters, there are issues relating to students which can be addressed only by a regular principal,” said Goyal. The college has strength of around 4,500 students. He also said that about 25-30 government colleges in Punjab were managing without regular principals.
Educationists believe that the delay in appointment of principals in government colleges is because of the imposition of code of conduct, first because of the panchayat elections and then for byelections. Others believe that the government is already under fire on the issue of appointment of 1,158 lecturers due to which no Departmental Promotion Committee (DPC) meetings could be held and no fresh appointments could be made. The reason could be anything but the fact remains that higher studies suffer in the absence of regular principals in the prestigious government colleges of Punjab.
Members of the Alumni Association of SCD Government College here have already approached the higher authorities including political leaders at their own level but to no avail. In the absence of a regular principal, the drawing and disbursing powers have been given to Dr Suman Lata, principal of Government College for Girls, Ludhiana, by the state government.
As per available information, there are a total 66 posts of principals in the government colleges of Punjab. Two principals are appointed as Deputy Director, College Education, while 64 are appointed as principals in colleges. Sixteen posts of principals are from the direct quota through the Punjab Public Service Commission (PPSC). These posts are lying vacant. Though it is said that eight principals out of 16 in the quota have been appointed, still none has joined any station so far and the posts are lying vacant, while in other colleges, the appointments are promotion-based.
It may be mentioned here that SCD Government College has produced leading names, including KK Daruwala, CBI chief Joginder Singh, Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill, Ojha brothers who were Chief Secretaries in Punjab and Haryana governments, AAP MP Sanjeev Arora etc. The Alumni Association wants more such personalities in future too but the college remains “directionless” in the absence of a permanent leader, they believe.
Despite repeated attempts, senior officials in the Higher Education Department including Deputy Director, College Education Harjinder Singh and Administrative Secretary Kamal Kishor Yadav could not be contacted. Director Sanyam Aggarwal, however, said since he was on a week’s leave, he was not in a position to comment on anything and can get the exact figure once he joins back his office.
