Around 13000 students have, till date, registered for the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) for the academic session 2017-18. Given the overwhelming response of the students, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has decided to extend the last date for online registration upto 31st May 2017.This information was given at a high level meeting convened here today by the Commissioner Secretary Higher Education, Dr Asghar Hassan Samoon to review the status of online registration for PMSSS and work-out the modalities for counseling of students.Secretary School Education, Farooq A Shah, Advisor AICTE, New Delhi Dileep S Malkhade, Director Colleges J&K, Director School Education Kashmir, Director School Education Jammu and representatives of Directorate of Technical Education, Jammu and Kashmir State Board of School Education, J&K Board of Technical Education and other concerned departments were present at the meeting.In a significant decision, AICTE has also decided to cover undergraduate engineering courses through lateral entry for diploma holders under PMSSS.
The meeting was informed that AICTE has agreed to cover J&K students with Diploma in Engineering under PMSSS who secure admission to BTech and BE on the basis of merit through general counseling under the said scheme.Pertinently, the issue of covering lateral entry under PMSSS was raised by the Minister for Education, Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari in his meeting with Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Mr Prakash Javadekar in New Delhi earlier this week. The Education Minister had also called for increasing the family income limit upto Rs 12 lakh for PMSSS.The meeting chaired by Commissioner Secretary Higher Education today was further informed that the counseling for admissions under PMSSS will begin next month and AICTE would, within one week, upload the list of approved colleges on its website.Speaking at the meeting, Dr Samoon called for launching an extensive awareness campaign throughout the State to enlist as many students for PMSSS. He asked the respective Directors of School to organize awareness camps in Higher Secondary Schools across the state to counsel students on how to apply for PMSSS. He said a media campaign would be also launched to guide students on how to apply for PMSSS.
Dr Samoon said all the District Development Commissioners have been asked to facilitate online registration of the students at the NIC centres located at the respective district headquarters in such areas where the internet facility is not available.AICTE Advisor, Dileep N Malkhede informed the meeting that this year around 2800 seats would be available in engineering streams while another 1000 seats would be available in other courses under PMSSS. He said 700 recognized professional colleges and 300 general colleges across the country will be admitting the J&K students under PMSSS.Pertinently, students having domicile of J&K who have passed Class 12th examination in academic session 2015-16 and 2016-17 from J&K State Board of School Education or CBSE affiliated schools within J&K are eligible for registration under PMSSS for 2017-18.The students can register online on the link: ww.aicte-jk-scholarship-gov.in.Under PMSSS scholarship upto Rs 30000 per annum per students is available for general courses, upto Rs 1.25 lakh per annum per student for engineering courses and upto Rs 3 lakh per annum per student for medical/dental courses. Besides, every student is entitled upto Rs 1 lakh per annum as maintenance charges. The students taking admission, by virtue of their own merit, in institutions like IITs, NITs, Medical Colleges, Dental Colleges and Central Universities outside J&K are also eligible for scholarship under PMSSS.
For the previous financial year Rs 75 crore worth scholarships were available to J&K students under PMSSS. Out of 5000 seats available under PMSSS for J&K last year, around 3500 students secured admission in various professional and other colleges outside the State. These included 2400 students admitted for engineering courses and 850 students in general courses besides 160 students for medical courses.Most of the students from J&K had secured admission in some of the reputed colleges across the country last year. These include Delhi College of Engineering, Chandigarh College of Engineering and Technology, St Stephens College Delhi, University Institute of Engineering and Technology Rohtak, Lady Shri Ram College for Women New Delhi, Birla Institute of Technology Jharkhand, Rajiv Gandhi Government Engineering College Himachal Pradesh (HP), Netaji Subash Institute of Technology, Delhi and DAV College Haryana.