1,158 posts in govt colleges will be filled within 45 days: Pargat Singh

The minister was at Panjab University, Chandigarh, on Tuesday to end the ongoing hunger strike of the University and Colleges Association over the demands of college-university cadre.

Pargat said that recruitment process of 1,091 posts of teaching cadre and 67 posts of librarian in government colleges would be completed within 45 days. He said that this recruitment will be done according to UGC guidelines.

“This recruitment will be done only on the basis of written test without any interview component. A selection committee will be formed under the chairmanship of the respective vice-chancellors. In order to mitigate the hardship being faced by the part-time/guest faculty/contractual teachers working in the government-run colleges, it has been decided to relax upper age limit for these candidates and give weightage of one mark per year subject to a maximum of five marks in respect of experience gained by them,” he said.

The minister said that higher education would be given special priority for betterment of the youth of the state. He said that for the prosperity of the state, additional reforms are required in the field of higher education for which a committee of experts and education experts would be formed to transform this sector.

It was 45th day of hunger strike by representatives of Punjab Federation of University and College Teachers Organisation and Punjab Chandigarh College Teachers Association at PU Chandigarh, which ended after the minister offered them lassi.

Earlier, representatives of the protesting organisations had a meeting with the minister. They apprised the minister of various issues such as pay commission, de-linking of UGC scale, amendment of Security of Service Act etc. Pargat assured them that demands related to salary would be resolved by the finance department.