Chandigarh: Over 180 private colleges of Punjab and Chandigarh on Friday observed complete 'education bandh' (shutdown) on the call of Join Action Committee (JAC), which represents their faculty, principals and stakeholders.

Besides, hundreds of teaching and non-teaching staff members of these colleges held a protest rally here in sector 25.

The JAC was constituted last month by the Private Colleges Management Federation of Punjab and Chandigarh and Federation of Associations of College Principals and Teachers' Union (Punjab and Chandigarh) to draw the attention of Punjab government towards the problems faced by the colleges.

"Non-government colleges have contributed immensely to all walks of life of Punjab and the country. But due to continuous neglect by the state government, these colleges are finding it really difficult to survive," JAC chairman S.C. Sanwalka said.

He appealed to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, state education minister and finance minister to work out some package and scheme for private colleges, so that they continue to contribute to the society.

Talking about their demands, Jagwant Singh, general secretary of JAC said, "We demand the lifting of ban on recruitment of teaching and non-teaching posts. There is a faculty deficit of nearly 50 per cent in the state and 1,700 teaching posts and 1,000 non-teaching posts are lying vacant in these colleges."

JAC also demanded the release of grants, which were stopped by Punjab government in 1999-2000.

"Presently many of these colleges are even finding it difficult to pay salaries to their staff. If the present situation continues then we will intensify our campaign from here and only Punjab government will be responsible for the consequences," he warned. IANS