Amritsar, December 18 – Non-Government Aided Colleges’ Management Federation (NGACMF) today expressed strong resentment over recent notification of Punjab Government regarding proposed fixing of retirement age of aided Colleges’ teachers at 58 years. They announced to wage a war against the government for the draconian decision and constituted a Joint Action Committee (JAC) to chart out the next course of action.
According to a statement issued here today, the decision was taken during the Executive Body meeting of the NGACMF held at Guru Nanak Khalsa College for Women, Ludhiana. The Federation, along with the teachers and principals’ association, would jointly fight for the rights of the teachers, said NGACMF President, Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina.
The Federation also demanded from the government to roll back the arbitrary centralized admission portal being imposed on the aided colleges which is a direct attack on the autonomy of the colleges. They also sought that the Grant-in-Aid Scheme must be implemented fully and not in the diluted form and demanded the pending dues of the grants from the state government be released immediately.
“We will soon shoot off a letter to the Secretary, Higher Education to clarify regarding the retirement age of the teachers and their salary grants. As the government is issuing misleading and vague verbal orders on the issue, we have been left with no option but to chalk out a major agitation which might include strikes and closure of institutions of higher learning in the days to come”, said Chhina.
The Executive Members held extensive deliberations on the notification issued by Government of Punjab regarding Pay revision of College teachers as per 7th pay commission. “Regarding the clause 13 (ii) of the notification, the government must seriously think of the central services rules and raise the retirement age of teachers to 65 years, instead of retiring them at the age of 58, ” said the office bearers.
They also said the Speaking Orders issued by the department of higher education regarding implementation of a Centralized Admission Portal for aided colleges from next academic session will be opposed tooth and nail. The proposal is faulty and arbitrary and the JAC would be meeting at Jalandhar on December 24 to plan the next course of action on the issue, said the office bearers including General Secretary SM Sharma, advisor Ravinder Joshi and executive member Dr. SP Singh, former vice chancellor GNDU.
They also drew the attention of the government to Hon’ble Supreme Court with respect to SLP No. 16813 of 2022 vide which it has been ruled by the apex court that the State is liable to pay leave encashment with respect to the un-availed leave to the credit of an employee since it is a component of “salary”.
