DW BUREAU / Mohali Gurmeet Singh Meet Hayer, Minister of Higher Education, Sports and Youth Services here today announced that there would be no cut in budgetary allocation for higher education. He said that in fact there had been a 16 percent increase for higher education in the budget this year. Hayer, who was chief guest at Rayat Bahra University in a state level seminar on "Higher Education in Punjab and New State Government: Hopes, Aspirations, Vision and the Road Ahead" organized by the association of the Unaided Colleges Teachers of Punjab and Chandigarh (AUCT). Meet Hayer said education and health were the priority areas of the AAP government in Punjab and the government envisions ensuring to its youth a system of higher education that equips them with knowledge and skills. The minister held out a warning to all colleges, both aided and unaided, that no harassment of teachers would be tolerated. Gurvinder Singh Bahra, Chancellor of the Rayat Bahra University and Chairman of the Rayat Bahra group of Institutions, according to an affectionate welcome to the minister and other dignitaries, said it was a proud moment for the Rayat Bahra University to host the State level seminar. He said the University had brought a paradigm change in the way professional education is imparted in the country in collaboration with the industry and several new age courses have been started to increase employment potential of the students. Dr. Piyare Lal Garg, Former Registrar of the Baba Farid University of Health Sciences who was the keynote speaker, said unaided colleges were rendering valuable services to the society. He underlined the need to improve the working environment of the teachers working in all colleges particularly unaided colleges. Dr. Parvinder Singh, Vice Chancellor of the Rayat Bahra University and Anmol Rattan Singh Sidhu, former Advocate General of Punjab, were the guests of honour at the seminar. Dr. Parvinder Singh called upon the management of the unaided colleges to collaborate with industry to increase the employment potential of the students. Professor Jaspal Singh, General Secretary of the AUCT, and Jatinder Pannu,Tarun Gahi, Ashok Goyal also spoke on the occasion. (editor@dailyworld.in)