AMRITSAR: Imposing faith in the present team, the general house of Non-Government Colleges Management Federation of Punjab and Chandigarh today unanimously re-elected incumbent Rajinder Mohan Singh Chhina as President for next three years’ term. The meeting of the general body was held today at historic Khalsa College here today.
Ramesh Kumar Kaura was re-elected as Vice President while Dr. SM Sharma retained the post of General Secretary of the body that represents 142 aided Colleges in Punjab and Chandigarh. Chhina in his Presidential address vowed to continue fighting to save the interests of Colleges and higher educational institutions. He said the Colleges were facing numerous issues and heading for financial crises if the issues were not addressed on time.
Chhina and other members meanwhile called for strong unity amongst the members for saving the institutions of higher learning, stating that the private lobby in the arena was posing serious challenges to aided Colleges. They said the state government, adopting a policy of withdrawal from providing aid to Colleges, thus reducing the grant in aid, was issuing various directives to the Colleges which were detrimental to the interests of aided colleges.
The general house empowered the President to select other office-bearers of the federation and consequently Dr.Agenese Dhillon was nominated as Secretary, Rakesh Dhir as Finance Secretary and Ravinder Joshi as Advisory. The Secretary, Education, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbadhank Committee (SGPC), Representative of DAV Institutions and Advocate Karandeep Singh Cheema from Sikh Educational Society, Chandigarh were nominated as Vice Presidents.
The decreasing grants, interference and subjugation of the autonomy of the Colleges, non-fulfillment of vacant posts and non release of grants of SC scholarships were some of the areas of concerns before the Federation. Dr.SM Sharma said present government has closed all doors of negotiations and government officials were not accessible to take up the issues of concerns as the Members were critical of the state government machinery for undermining the autonomy of the Colleges, falling under three Universities of Punjab including Panjab University, Chandigarh, Punjabi University, Patiala and Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar.
Meanwhile Chhina and Sharma thanked the members for electing them once again and promised to work to redress the problems being faced by Colleges. Other executive members included former GNDU VC Dr. SP Singh, Gurvinder Singh Sarna, Nand Kumar, Dr. Anesh Parkash, Pavittarpal Singh Pangli, SS Thind, Vinod Bhaardwaj, Dr.MP Singh, sanjay Goyal, Anil Jain, Satwant Singh and representatives from Khalsa College and Sukhchaina Sahib College, Phagwara.