Member of Parliament Pratibha Singh called on Shri Jitin Prasad Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development in New Delhi.Pratibha Singh urged him for establishment of Institute of Advance Studies at Dharamshala in Kangra district for capacity building of teachers to ensure higher and quality teacher education in the State. She suggested that existing CTE Dharamshala should be upgraded as an Institute of Advance Studies for setting up higher level institution in the State.
Mrs Pratibha Singh demanded the establishment of Indian Institute of Management premier education institute in the state for imparting quality and advance management education for the management students and offered land and other infrastructural facilities for setting up premier institutions. She thanked the Minister for setting up Central University and IIT in the State which was catering to the growing demand of quality education in the State and also urged for sanctioning liberal financial assistance to these institutions for developing world class modern infrastructure to develop them as premier institutions in the country.
She also demanded Special Hill status to the State on the lines of North Eastern States and urged for Central State assistance in the ratio of 90:10 by HRD ministry instead of present ratio of 75:25.Mrs Pratibha Singh told that State Government had introduced Choice Based Credit system and Semester System etc. under RUSA for higher and technical education in the State and requested the Government of India for providing liberal financial assistance to the State Government for setting up additional infrastructure and teaching staff for ensuring quality education under the scheme. She demanded the release of first instalment of Rs 1,79,73,000/- for 5991 beneficiaries under the incentive scheme for girls at secondary level and told that the non release of funds were hampering the scheme.
Member of Parliament told that had appointed 1328 teachers under ICT at Schools in second phase in 618 Government Senior Secondary Schools, 5 Smart Schools and 848 Government High Schools and told that a proposal under the scheme for re-imbursement of their salary at 10,000/- per month per teacher had been sent to the Ministry and requested him to intervene in providing funds under the scheme to the State Government at the earliest as the teachers had already been appointed by the State Government to avoid dislocation of this vocational education/ IT to the students of the State.
Pratibha Singh told that National Vocational Education Qualification Framework (NVEQF) programme had been launched in 100 Government Senior Secondary Schools and five trades (Automobile, Retail, Security, I.T./ ITeS & Healthcare) had been introduced. She told that an amount of Rs. 4463 lakhs was approved by the Government of India against which Rs. 1025 lakhs had been received. She told that teachers had been appointed and the classes had also started under the programme. She requested for release of balance payment of Rs. 3438 lakhs under the programme for the year are 2013-14 and told that the programme would suffer badly if the recurring/balance grant was not received in time.
Pratibha Singh also met Union Minister of Steel Shri Beni Prasad Verma and requested him to start the Steel Processing Plant at Kandrori in Kangra district immediately. She told that the matter may also be taken up with Ministry of Defence for early sorting out the issue relating to Defence Ministry for starting the steel plant. She told that the environmental clearance for Arki limestone mine had already been taken and requested him to start the venture immediately to provide employment opportunities to the local youths and generate economic activities in the area to raise the social and economic standard of the residents.