The 18th meeting of the Governing Council for Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Gurukul, Charan Paduka, Katra was held at Gurukul Complex here in which a number of important decisions were taken to develop this institution as a Centre of Excellence. It is to be recalled that the Shrine Board had set up this Gurukul in 2010.Dr. S. S. Bloeria, Member of Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board and Chairman of the Governing Council for Gurukul, chaired the meeting. Prof. Yugal Kishore Mishra; Prof. Vishwamurti Shastri; Mr. Ajeet Kumar Sahu, Chief Executive Officer, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board; Dr. M. K. Kumar, Additional CEO of the Board; Mr. Hem Kant Prasher, Chief Accounts Officer; Mr. Pankaj Gupta, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of the Shrine Board and Administrator of Gurukul; and Mr. Gopal Dass Sharma, Head Pujari, Bhawan participated in the meeting.Dr. Bloeria and other Members of the Governing Council emphasised the need for continuing endeavours being made to develop the Gurukul as an institution of excellence.CEO informed that after students of the Gurukul had procured top positions at the University, Governor N. N. Vohra, who is Chairman of the Shrine Board, had directed the institution of awards and medals to encourage the outstanding students. Later, the Shrine Board institutionalised the award of Gold Medals for the toppers in Purva Madhyama (10th class) and Uttar Madhyama (12th class) examinations of the Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya, to which the Gurukul is affiliated. These medals shall be awarded, for the first time, at the 2016 Convocation of the University.The medal will be named ‘Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board Swaran Padak’.
For meeting the cost of the two gold medals to be awarded every year, on the instructions of Governor N. N. Vohra, a corpus fund has been created with Sampurnanand Sanskrit Vishwavidyalaya. The interest earned out of this corpus fund shall be utilised for preparing and awarding gold medals every year.At present 136 students, studying in VI to XI classes in this fully residential Gurukul, are being imparted education in Vedas, Sanskrit, religious scriptures, Karamkand and Pooja rituals, apart from being taught all modern subjects, including Science, Mathematics and Computers. The Gurukul provides free education, boarding, lodging, uniforms, books etc. to the students. For the all-round development of the students the Shrine Board has made elaborate arrangements for indoor and outdoor games at the Gurukul.The Chairman and Members of the Governing Council inspected the ongoing work on the construction of Phase-II of the Gurukul. The Shrine Board has decided to upgrade the Gurukul by making arrangements for Shastri Course i.e. Graduation level, for which the classes will be started in the 2017-18 Session. For this purpose, a Hostel Block for students and Acharya Block for the Faculty, temple and a Yagyashalla are being constructed. Dr. Bloeria stressed on the CEO to ensure time-bound completion of the ongoing Phase-II construction of the Gurukul and putting in place the required infrastructure to meet the needs of the future intake of students for the “Shastri” course.The meeting discussed the various agenda items and took decisions for the all round development of the students as well as for further strengthening the functioning of this institution.