GCTA concerned over vacant principal posts

PATIALA, DEC 5: The Punjab Government College Teachers8217; Association GCTA has expressed concern over the quot;casual attitudequot; of the Punjab government towards higher education in the state. It was alleged that with the Department of Higher Education being with the Chief Minister, even routine files took about one month for clearance. About 13 colleges in the state were without regular principals, said Dr P.S. Bhatti, president of GCTA, here today. He said it was for the first time that all the big colleges, including both colleges of Ludhiana, Mohindra College, Patiala, and government colleges of Gurdaspur and Sangrur, were without regular principals. He said though the pay scales of college teachers were revised in March, a number of clauses were still to be implemented, adding that Punjab Government College lecturers had not been paid their salary arrears even after nine months of revision of grades.

Sikh Forum hails Bachan8217;s appointment
The sikh Intellectual Forum has hailed the appointment of Gurbachan Singh Bachan as secretary of Shiromani Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee and also thanked the SGPC Chief for making a quot;good choicequot; for the pivotal post.

The Forum, in a meeting today on the Punjabi University campus, termed this step taken by Bibi Jagir Kaur as a reformist step to change the image of the SGPC. The Forum, while endorsing the reformist move started by the SGPC chief, also appealed to her to take help from the intellectual class to improve the outlook of the Committee.The meeting was presided by Dr Dalbir Singh and some others who attended included Professors Surinder Singh Khaira, Kulwant Singh Grewal, Manmandir Singh.