Ludhiana/Amritsar The joint action committee (JAC) of Non-Govt Aided Colleges Management Federation (NGACMF), Principals’ Associations, Punjab Chandigarh Colleges Teachers Union (PCCTU) and Un-aided Private Colleges’ body on Monday said that all colleges in Punjab will remain shut on January 18. The colleges in Punjab are protesting against the government’s ‘arbitrary and discriminatory decision to implement centralised admission portal and tinkering with service rules of teachers, including lowering the retirement age to 58 years’.
In a joint meeting of the JAC and Unaided Colleges at Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women at Ludhiana, over the issue, it was decided that all colleges will remain closed on January 18. “We are in dire strait and are taking this extreme step as the government is unresponsive to our demands,” said federation president Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina, who chaired the meeting.
Chhina said that chief minister Bhagwant Mann and the minister of higher education have not even given the time for a meeting to discuss issues confronting higher education in Punjab.
“On January 18, all colleges will remain shut and memorandums would be submitted to deputy commissioners in all district headquarters as neither the higher education minister nor CM is giving us time to meet them to raise our issues,” said federation secretary SM Sharma.