Minister of State (MoS) for Education, Priya Sethi today said that 648 students of Mandi area are pursuing their studies at Government Degree College (GDC) Poonch while one student of Mandi is studying at GDC Surankote.Replying to a Calling Attention Notice moved by legislator Shah Mohammad Tantray, the Minister said GDC Poonch offers subject that include General English, English Literature, Botany, Zoology, Chemistry, Sericulture, Physics, Mathematics, BCA, Geography, Urdu, Hindi, Punjabi, Education, Pol. Science Economics, Arabic, History, Philosophy, Environment Science, Persian, Sociology, Commerce, Biotechnology. While GDC Surankote offers subjects including English, Education, Urdu, Pol. Science and Environment Science, she added.The Minister informed the House that that Govt. Degree College, Poonch is at a distance of 24 km and Degree College, Surankote is at a distance of 30 km from Mandi. She further informed that there is one more College functional in the district located at Mendhar, in which various subjects including Applied Math, Arabic, Botany, Chemistry, Commerce, English, Hindi, Urdu, Computer Application, Economics, Education, English Literature, Environment Science, Geography, Mathematics, Persian, Physics, Political Science, Sociology, Zoology) are offered in the College.
Priya Sethi said that at present there is no proposal to open a Degree College at Tehsil Mandi. However, 17 new Degree Colleges which was recently approved by the government shall be established in the uncovered areas of the State and that the vocational details for setting up of the newly sanctioned colleges are being worked out by the Department, she added.It will be an endeavor of the department that the academic activities in these colleges are started as soon as possible, however, the opening of new Colleges at a particular place/area shall be subject to the availability of requisite land and feasibility of demand which also includes the sufficient number of feeding Higher Secondary Schools in the area”, she said adding that the priority shall be accorded to uncovered Assembly Segments which are presently devoid of such facility.