Punjab Agriculture Department Orders Colleges to Comply with Norms

Private colleges in the state of Punjab which were offering various courses in Agriculture without complying to the norms stated in the Punjab State Council for Agricultural Education Act 2017 have been asked to meet the norms or face the consequences by the state agriculture department. The authorities of the private colleges have requested for an extension of the deadline.

A survey had been conducted which revealed that many colleges did not comply with the rules and regulations as mentioned in the Punjab State Council for Agriculture Education Act 2017. It was witnessed that private colleges offering the four-year B.Sc Agriculture courses after Class 12 did not meet the necessary standards. It was also noticed that the colleges did not offer the necessary infrastructure to provide the students with practical knowledge in the field.

In Punjab, the Punjab State Council for Agriculture Education (PSCAE) have identified 33 private institutes that offer B.Sc Agriculture courses, and have not sent in their status report with respect to admissions, affiliation, curricula and staff.

On 21st November 2019, the council had asked the institutes to submit their status within the span of 15 days, or strict action will be taken against the institutes. Further, the recognition that has been offered to these institutes will be taken away, starting 1st January 2020, if they fail to comply with the regulations.

If these institutes fail to comply with the rules and do not submit their status report within the stipulated time period, many students, approximately 6,000, students will suffer. As per the rules, the institutions offering Agricultural courses were to seek the approval of the council in order to continue providing the course by 1st January 2020.

Previously, the institutes were to send in their status report within 30 days of the order, meanwhile, a compliance report was to be given by the institutes within 6 months. As of now, 79 agricultural colleges out of 112 colleges have submitted their status report, meanwhile, the Council has ordered the last 33 institutes to submit the report within half a month, to avoid any further complications.

Among the violations that the colleges have been accused of is lack of proper infrastructures such as classrooms and no arrangements for practicals along with unqualified faculty. As per the rules in the Act, private colleges are supposed to allocate 50 acres of land for the purpose of conducting practicals, which was not followed by the colleges, sources state. The private colleges had been working under the affiliation of Guru Nanak Dev University, Punjab Agriculture University and Punjabi University.

The Punjab Agriculture Secretary, KS Pannu stated that the B.Sc Agriculture colleges have been given a deadline of 31st December 2019. He added that the colleges are expected to meet the norms mentioned by the government or stop offering the courses by the deadline. Inability to meet the norms by the deadline will result in the government taking actions against the violators, he said.

Pannu added that the students who are currently enrolled under the B.Sc Agriculture courses in the violating colleges will be allowed to complete their course, however, no new admissions will be entertained in the colleges if they fail to meet the norms. An official from the department stated that many private colleges were established within the past 3-4 years, wherein, the demand for such courses has been high.

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The Director of Joint Action Committee of Private Agricultural Colleges, RS Dhanoa stated that the Act mentions that the government will provide 2 years to the private colleges to submit a compliance report. This was their only dispute with the order that they are given the allotted time period as mentioned in the act which was notified to them in February 2019, he added.

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He also added that they have also requested the government to reduce the size of the agricultural land for the purpose of conducting practicals. The colleges were not offering M.Sc agricultural courses in the state for which a larger piece of land is needed to conduct practicals and for B.Sc Agriculture courses, the agricultural land will only be for demonstration purposes so the land need not be as large as 50 acres, he stated. A response is yet to be heard from the government with regards to the requests that have been submitted by the college authorities.