Chandigarh, November 24
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national leader, Delhi Education Minister and Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia has appealed to the Charanjit Singh Channi-led Congress government not to make about 1,000 guest-faculty assistant professors unemployed; who have been handling the higher education system in government colleges of Punjab for years. Sisodia said that since the year 2002, the assistant professors who worked diligently for the strength of the education system like regular and part-time professors at the very minimum wages; the Channi government betrayed them and now was bent on making them sit home, many of whom have even crossed the prescribed age limit for the job.
On Wednesday, Manish Sisodia who was on Punjab visit, met the guest faculty professors of the state and termed the attitude of the Congress government towards them as inhuman and unjust. On the deepening crisis in the education department of Punjab, Sisodia raised questions on the promise of Ghar-Ghar Rozgar of the Congress government of Punjab. He said that this promise will be fulfilled only when the Channi government of Punjab would make a one-time settlement of 906 Guest Faculty Assistant Professors serving in Government Colleges of Punjab on priority basis without any test-condition on ‘Dying Cadre’ basis and ensure their jobs till retirement.
He further said that earlier the Akali Dal Badal and the Captain government and now the Channi government of the Congress, despite being in power for about 15 years, did not take any care of the guest faculty assistant professors. Manish Sisodia said that the Congress government was snatching even the nominal employment of hundreds and thousands of people, who have been serving temporarily for 15-20 years. The latest example of this is the guest faculty assistant professors in government colleges. He said that if the Channi government does not provide relief to the assistant professors, then the job of all guest faculty assistant professors will be secured on priority on the formation of the AAP government in Punjab.
Earlier, the Government College Guest Faculty Assistant Professors’ Association with its president Harminder Singh Dimple handed a memorandum to Manish Sisodia. The association urged Sisodia to save them from the harassment and informed that 300 regular professors are working in Punjab Education Department on a monthly salary of Rs 1.50 to 2 lakh and 225 part-time professors are on a monthly salary of about Rs 60,000, while 11 professors are serving on contract basis.
Apart from these, 906 guest faculty assistant professors are serving on a monthly salary of only Rs 21,600 and their salary is also divided into two parts. Amount of Rs 11,600 of the salary is released from the PTA fund and Rs 10,000 from the government fund. The guest-faculty assistant professors told the Delhi Deputy Chief Minister that on October 19, 2021, the Punjab Higher Education Department had published an advertisement for recruitment to a total of 1,158 posts. They said that with this, all the guest-faculty assistant professors who have been serving in the government colleges of Punjab for 10 to 20 years would become unemployed.
Along with expressing this concern, the assistant professors said that the written test should be taken only for about 591 posts lying vacant in the Higher Education Department. Also, like Haryana and other states, quota should be fixed for the youth of Punjab. Finding themselves in danger, the guest faculty assistant professors, expressing their concern, said that they have been shifted to 16 new colleges opened by the Punjab government on August 10, 2021. In such a situation, it is very difficult for them to go to far-flung colleges, stay there and make a living at home on very minimum wages.
