Around 190 private colleges of Punjab will go on strike on February 26 on the call of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) representing their faculty members, heads as well as stakeholders.

The JAC was formed in Jan 2010 by the private colleges management federation of Punjab and Chandigarh, federation of associations of college principals and teachers' union (Punjab and Chandigarh) in order to draw the attention of the Punjab administration in the direction of the growing troubles of private colleges.

Mr. Jagwant Singh, general secretary of the JAC, stated, "Despite our repeated reminders, the Punjab government has not done anything for the welfare of teaching and non-teaching staff of private colleges."

"In the last six months, we have submitted various memorandums, highlighting our demands, to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal but we have not received any satisfactory reply so far," Mr. Singh added.

"Now we have decided to go for a complete 'education bandh' in all (private) colleges of the state and to bring out a protest rally in Chandigarh on February 26. Representatives of all affected colleges will participate in this protest rally," he remarked.

Mr. Jagwant also said that they were demanding that the prohibition on enrollment of teaching and non-teaching posts, enforced in July 2005, be lifted without any delay.

He said, "Currently 1,700 teaching posts and 1,000 non-teaching posts are lying vacant and 2,500 teachers are working on contract basis in the state. There is a faculty deficit of nearly 50 per cent in the state," he said.

The JAC was also calling for an direct release of grants that the administration had suspended in 1999-2000 and some part of which was issued after 2006.

Mr. S. C. Sanwalka, president of the JAC, said: "The Punjab government is quite reluctant to meet our demands. If things continue like this, closure of many private colleges is inevitable in the next one or two years." (With Input from Agencies)