DPI (Colleges) evades queries on revised UGC grades

Sohan Lal,Director,Public Instructions (Colleges),ducked queries related to the controversial issue of the implementation of revised UGC grades for college lecturers. The DPI (Colleges) was in the city on Friday to attend the annual prize distribution function of the Government College for Women.

In Punjab,a majority of colleges are unaided which means they are not funded by the state government. Ever since the announcement of the implementation of the revised UGC grades,there is a lot of hue and cry among college lecturers and college managements as the many college are unable to implement these grades due to financial crunch. Talking to Newsline,the DPI said,“The UGC notification has given suggestions to unaided colleges. These colleges are self reliant.” When asked if he had taken up the issue with the state government about the financial problem of unaided college for the implementation of the revised UGC grades,he said,“I do not want to comment on the issue.” Interestingly,the UGC guidelines don’t have any suggestions for the unaided colleges. However,he also kept silent if the government will allow unaided college to increase fee.