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Staff without salary for over 2 years, Sarhali Khalsa College in Tarn Taran district on the verge of closure
Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, Sarhali, in Patti sub-division of Tarn Taran district is on the verge of closure as the members of its teaching and non-teaching
Guru Gobind Singh Khalsa College, Sarhali, in Patti sub-division of Tarn Taran district is on the verge of closure as the members of its teaching and non-teaching staff are struggling to get their salaries for more than two years.
Even the strength of students at the college run by a voluntary organisation, Sampardai Sant Baba Tara Singh, has seen a drastic dip from 2,300 in 2015 to 213 this year.
The faculty members say the future of the staff and the students from scores of surrounding villages is hanging in the balance due to lackadaisical approach of the college management. They also demanded a vigilance inquiry into the financial transactions of the management since 2011.
The college was built in 1970 by the voluntary organisation with the help and donation from residents of at least 22 villages in the area.
“We have been working without salary for the last 25 months. Our repeated requests to the management have fallen on deaf ears. Some teachers have already left their jobs due to non-payment of salaries. We have also filed a court case against the management and the next hearing is scheduled in February,” said Prof Paramjit Singh who teaches Punjabi literature.
The college has 18 members of teaching staff — some being permanent and others under the management quota. “The management is expressing inability to pay the salaries due to a decreasing number of students. But the reality is that they don’t want to run the college and are eying the land worth crores donated by the people to run the institution,” Prof Paramjit added.
Prof Jasbir Singh, another faculty member, said the management deliberately closed several courses in the last few years. “Even, the fee is being increased by 8% every year on the lines of city colleges against the rules,” he said.
Prof Balwinder Singh said they have written to the Punjab secretary (higher education) seeking a probe into the management’s functioning, but to no avail. The Punjab chief minister should intervene as it concerns education of students of this border district, he said.
They accused the management of bungling crores of rupees from the college’s funds by flaying the guidelines of the University Grant Commission (UGC).
College principal JK Arora said, “The issue of staff salary has been taken up.College chairman Baba Hakam Singh is the right person to tell as why the salaries are not being released. Even I have also not got my salary since March 2020.”
Hakam Singh didn’t respond to repeated calls.
