Gian Sagar Closure: Where will the faculty, employees go?

The decision of the Punjab government to withdraw essentiality certificates of Gian Sagar Education and Charitable Trust and shift the 1500 students to different medical colleges has left the faculty, para medical and class 4 employees with no means of livelihood, as they seem tobe emerging as nobody’s responsibility. Hired by the college management, they can be shrugged of by the government authorities as well.

With the government reluctant to take over the college due to the massive financial liabilities incurred by its management, headed by the family of Nirmal Singh Bhangoo, (the main accused in the Rs 45,000 crore chit-fund scam by the Pearls Group), nobody seems to be concerned about working out rehabilitation or compensation for the staff, that stands rudderless in the present situation.

The present arrears include staff salaries, electricity bills worth Rs 2 crores, un renewed annual maintenance contract worth Rs 18 crores, totalling a sum of over 100 crore.

Dr Sandeep Bansal said a senior faculty member, speaking to the HT on closure of college and shifting of students said “ it will not be a sensible decision by the state government”.

“Earlier, the students who were shifted from Chintpurni College to other medical colleges have not been rehabilitated properly. How can the state government assure streamlined shifting of students to other colleges, when there is shortage of resources and equipment in other colleges too,” he added

Since neither the college or the previous management have shown any inclination to help the staff, Monday saw a delegation of the medical faculty and para-medical staff in a meeting with senior officials at the Chief Minister’s office . They appealed to the government for a college take over in order to look after the interest of both students, and staff.

“The closure of the institute will lead to professional loss of students and will make more than 1,000 employees unemployed, while pushing their families into dark. Moreover, it will be a major setback to the healthcare of the region, as the hospital presently has state-of-the-art medical machinery and medical equipment,” Bansal added.

Meanwhile, Brahm Mohindra had earlier clarified that the students were the only responsibility of the state government, as they were admitted through state held medical tests, while it was the management of private medical college, which had hired the employees, and had shirked paying salaries to them. Thereby, implying the onus of responsibility for it lay with the management and not the government.