Punjab Unaided Colleges Association (PUCA) has requested the State Government to immediate release the funds meant for Post Matric Scholarship scheme (PMS) for SC-ST students in the state. The final second semester examination of the students are starting at the end of the April and colleges are finding it tough to conduct the exams as they don’t have money to pay even the salaries & other expenses.It is to be mentioned that around 125 crore is due for the year 2014-15 and above 525 crore is due for the year 2015-16President, PUCA, Dr. Anshu Kataria demanded that Government should atleast make some partial payment out of 500-600 crore so that colleges can pay salaries to the teachers. Even the Government Universities including IKG- Punjab Technical University, Jalandhar (IKG-PTU), Maharaja Ranjit Singh-Punjab Technical University, Bathinda (MRS-PTU), Punjabi University, Patiala etc are demanding examination fee of SC-ST students from the colleges.”How a college can pay to the University when neither the State Government nor the students have paid even single penny for 2015-16 to the colleges?”
Dr. Kataria further said, “Punjab government had already investigated the matter four times in various departments including Sanctioning authority, concerned departments i.e. DPI (Schools), DPI (Colleges), Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DRME) and Director Technical Education (DTE). PUCA is ready for the probe of any college associated with them. If any college found guilty, the scholarship for that particular college must be stopped, but rest of the colleges should not suffer for this.”Finance Secretary Manmohan Garg says, “Although the number of colleges indicted in the inquiry conducted by Government is very small. Just for amount of 30-50 crore, state government has not released Rs 500- 550 crore. It is totally unjustified.”“Many colleges have been declared Non Performing Asset (NPA) by the banks because State Government has not paid the scholarship amount for 2015-16 year and many more would be declared NPA if Government would further delay in the release of scholarship funds” he added. “If government would not release PMS amount immediately then at the time of admission, colleges might ask for the fees from these students in advance or they would be forced not to admit SC/ST students” Garg said.