Chandigarh L: Around 400 Unaided Technical Institutions of Punjab including Engineering, Polytechnic, Management, Architecture, BBA/BCA Colleges etc. are holding a Conference on 18th November, 2011 in Mohali. The main agenda would be to device the strategies to protect the educational institutions from being closed. It is to be mentioned that educational institutions of Punjab are facing a lot of problems because of non-supportive attitude of Regulatory bodies like Punjab Govt., All India Council For Technical Education (AICTE),Punjab Technical University (PTU).
Colleges expressed row over Punjab Govt.,PTU & AICTE policies
This was said by Dr. J S Dhaliwal, President, PUTIA while the adressing the Press Conference held today in Chandigarh Press Club. He told that various prominent educationists from renowned educational groups from all around Punjab including Sh. Gurvinder Singh (Rayat & Bahra); Sh. Satnam Singh Sandhu (CGC, Landran); Dr. Rohan Sachdeva (Lala Lajpat Rai Group); S.Manjit Singh (Doaba); Sh.Sukhdev Singla (Indo Global); Dr. Anshu Kataria (Aryans Group); Sh. Avtar Singh (Sukhmani Group); Sh.J.S.Bedi (GJIMT); Sh.Ashwani Garg (SVIET); Sh.D.S.Sekhon(Quest Group) etc. participated in the meeting held yesterday. The Colleges expressed row over Punjab Govt.,PTU & AICTE policies.
Heavy Commercial Charges on Institutions
Dr. Dhaliwal said that Unaided Technical Institutions of Punjab are being charged for change of Land use (CLU), External Development Charges (EDC), Commercial electricity Charges , commercial transport charges, stamp duty etc. Dr. Dhaliwal added that Punjab Govt., instead of supporting, is charging all commercial charges. Dr. Dhaliwal said that Educational Institutes should be exempted from all type of taxes.
6000 Crore Technical Educational Institutions in Punjab on verge of closure
On one hand there are many applications coming to AICTE /PTU for closure of institutes while on the other hand Govt. is spending huge amount on starting new Technical Institutes. What is the point of spending huge amount on starting new Institutions when thousands of seats are lying vacant in the State,asked Dr.Dhaliwal. He said that PTU corpus fund should be used for the betterment of Technical Education in Punjab instead of starting new Engineering and Technical Colleges. It is to be mentioned that in Punjab, total investment in Pvt.Unaided Technical Institutes is around Rs.6000 crore.If Govt.does not come forward to protect the Industry, the Institutes would die their own death.
Punjab lost its share to other states
Dr.Dhaliwal said that the major IT Industry is being attracted towards Bangalore, Pune, Hyderabad.Students studying in these areas get jobs very easily because of presence of Industry. Himachal also has been successful in attracting Manufacturing Industries. On the other hand,Punjab could not attract neither Manufacturing or IT, nor any other Industry. Punjab Govt.should attract the Industries in the state so that students of other states who come to Punjab for Education, should get employment also in the state.
Prices of everything rises except Education
Dr.Dhaliwal said that in last 10-15 years, the price of everything rises except Fee Structure. The cost of Education has increased but the fee structure has not increased upto that extent. Govt.should consider the fee revision as the cost of education has gone up drastically in last 10-15 years. Dr.Dhaliwal demanded that Private Technical Institutions should be given due representation in the policy making process of Punjab Govt., PTU and AICTE.
95% Technical Institutes in Punjab are Pvt., but totally ignored by Govt.
It is to be mentioned that in Punjab, more than 95% of Technical Insititutes are Private, but there is no representation to private Institutes in Policy making.Even in the recently formed Education Reforms Committee, there is no mention of Technical Education.