Step of Punjab State Council of Agricultural Education is very unfortunate for the Students:JAC
KS Diwan/ royalpatiala.in/ Bathinda
Punjab Govt has issued a public notice to the universities/colleges providing Agriculture education and trainings in state those do not fulfill the conditions and minimum standards prescribed under the Punjab State Council for Agricultural Education Act-2017. Therefore, if these institutions do not fulfill minimum criteria till December 31, 2019, the council’s recognition of such institutions will be canceled from 1 January 2020 and shall the degrees/diplomas/Certificates issued by these institutions will be considered as invalid. In regard this issued public notice, Joint Action Committee (JAC), representing the unaided colleges of Punjab has taken serious notice and held an emergency meeting in Bathinda. In this meeting, Joint Action Committee Chairman . Ashwani Sekhri, Dr. Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, Chairman Academic Advisory Forum, Sukhmandar Singh Chattha from Punjab Unaided Degree Colleges Association (PUDCA), . Manjit Singh from Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association (PUTIA), Dr. Anshu Kataria from Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA), Charanjit Singh Walia from Nursing Training Institution Association of Punjab , Jagjit Singh, President of B.Ed. Federation, Nirmal Singh of ETT Federation, Rajinder Singh Dhanoa from Association of Polytechnic Colleges, Punjab, Jasneek Singh of B.Ed. Federation (Pb. Uni.), Shawinder Singh of B.Ed. Federation (GNDU), . Vipin Sharma from Confederation of Punjab Unaided Institute and . Simanshu Gupta from ITI association of Punjab were also present. A decision was made in this meeting that all the members of JAC will do efforts to overcome this situation of confusion among students & their parents in Punjab through different medium
In view of the above decision of Joint Action Committee, a press conference was organized by JAC Directors at Bathinda. While addressing the press conference, Dr. Gurmeet Singh Dhaliwal, Director JAC and Chairman Academic Advisory Forum informed that the Punjab State Council for Agricultural Education Act was passed in January 2018, under which the status report was sought from the college At that time, no criteria were set by the Council for the study of agriculture. He said that 25 colleges under the Act applied to the Punjab State Council for Agricultural Education and the status report had also sent. All colleges affiliated with the different Universities have met all the standards of their Universities and the status report was sent accordingly. The final criteria were fixed by the council in January 2019, and on the basis of these criteria, a letter was issued to the colleges on June 28, 2019, with some flaws in the status report. According to the letter, these flaws should be removed and a compliance report should be sent till December 31, 2019. But before the completion of the time period to submit Compliance Report, the council issued such a big public notice based on that Status report and raised a question on the reliability of the report.
Sukhmandar Singh Chathha, Director JAC and President PUDCA said that the information about affiliation with the council is not received by colleges at different level from the council, due to which 82 colleges affiliated with different universities had not apply yet. This public notice of council regarding Colleges of agricultural education at the time of admissions has created a situation of confusion among the students and their parent The condition of these unaided colleges of Punjab has already become critical due to the inadequacy of students because majority of the students are going to abroad for their study and now with this confused situation, they are now in a stage where running these colleges under these conditions is no longer beneficial and due to this situation these colleges will reached at the corner of closing.
Gurtej Singh Brar, Vice President, Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association (PUTIA) said that due to the public notice given by the Council, the reliability of Colleges in Punjab is very much affected. It is worth mentioning that every year a large number of students come to study in these colleges from other States but now there is a complete fear that this time the number of students from outside states will be very less in agriculture courses which would not only be a loss to these colleges, but revenue of State will also decrease.
. Rajinder Singh Dhanoa, Director JAC and Secretary Association of Polytechnic Colleges, Punjab said that more than 80 percent of the teaching in the state was being provided by the unaided college In the last year, a dozen Polytechnic colleges have closed down due to non-governmental support and patronage to these colleges and almost the same numbers of other colleges are on the verge of closure. Issuing this public notice by the council in such a time is another evidence of not making sincere efforts by the government towards unaided college As a result, the future of students is seen in the peril.
In this conference, . Gurvinder Singh Bali of Nursing Training Institution Association of Punjab told that the step of Punjab State Council for Agricultural Education as unfortunate for the Students as well as for College
Dr. Dhaliwal said that now Joint Action Committee (JAC) of the unaided colleges of Punjab has sought time from the Honorable Minister and the concerned officer, so that they can be made clear about created situation of the adverse impact on the college All colleges affiliated with the different Universities have met all the standards of their Universities and recognized from these universitie So, Students and their parents should not have any doubt for thi He said that Joint Action Committee has already sorted out a lot of issues in the interest of students with the Center and Punjab Government for a long time and now situation of this illusion will be resolved soon.
