Badal Sanctions Rs.88 Crore For Renovation And Upgradation Of 46 Government Colleges
5 Dariya News
Chandigarh 28-Jun-2013
The Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today gave nod to revamp the infrastructure in all the Government Colleges across the state at a cost of Rs. 88 crore within two years.Presiding over a high level meeting of the vice-chancellors of Universities, principals of government colleges, and the senior officers of the higher education here at Punjab Bhawan this morning, Mr. Badal said that of this sum of Rs. 88 crore, Rs. 46 crore would be spent on the strengthing and upgradation of Infrastructure in these colleges during the current fiscal and the balance Rs. 42 crore had been earmarked for the execution of alteration and additional civil works to be undertaken during the financial year 2014-15. A sum of Rs. 88 crore had been sanctioned, said Mr. Badal keeping in view the fragile infrastructure and dilapidated buildings of Government Colleges over a period of time which needed immediate repair and upgradation to ensure congenial atmosphere for imparting quality education. He asked the Principal Secretary Higher Education to ensure that during the first phase only repairs and renovation works should be undertaken and the construction work of additional rooms, boundary walls should be executed during the second phase.
To overcome an acute shortage of teaching staff in the Government Colleges and bring efficiency in their functioning to impart the best education facilities to the students, Mr. Badal directed the Principal Secretary Higher Education to immediately initiate the process for recruitment of college teachers on regular basis against the vacant posts. He categorically asked the Principal Secretary Higher Education to regularly fill these vacant posts of teacher faculty on permanent basis rather resorting to the prevalent practice of engaging college teachers on guest faculty and part time basis.
The Chief Minister reiterated that the main objective of the State Government was to develop all the 46 Government Colleges in such a manner to equip them with latest infrastructure for providing quality education in the rural areas on one hand and providing level playing field to compete with their counterparts globally on the other.Participating in a brain storming session, Mr. Badal asked the VCs to allow the Government Colleges to run skill development and professional courses to enable the students to be gainfully employed. He also impressed upon the Principals of Government Colleges to introduce self-financing schemes in the colleges to generate additional revenue for making these educational institutions economically viable and financially sustainable.
Appreciating such initiative of the Punjabi University Patiala to introduce BA Professional degree course for the first time at Mohindra College Patiala, Mr. Badal asked other VCs to prepare a road map for the identification of thrust areas for developing Science & Technology Centers enclose coordination of varsities, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) and the State Education Department to imbibe scientific temper amongst the students in these colleges on one hand and give fillip to the science education in Punjab one the other.
Emphasizing the need to establish proper coordination amongst Varsities, Higher Education department and the Government Colleges to achieve the desired goal, the Chief Minister asked to evolve a new system of bi-annual inspection and evaluation of the Government Colleges by ‘Mentoring and Monitoring Teams’ comprising VCs, Secretary Higher Education and other senior officers to provide support and guidance in all aspects to the Govt. Colleges for the timely removal of bottlenecks if any in the way of their development besides bringing efficacy in their day to day functioning. He further asked the Vice-Chancellors to appoint two Guardian Professors in each Govt. College to ensure its overall development and progress.
To ensure holistic development and seek novel ideas for bringing further improvement in these colleges, Mr. Badal asked all the Principals to visit Maharaja Ranjit Singh Preparatory Military Academy at Mohali for working out a detailed perspective to replicate this model for establishing military training centers especially for the girls over the vacant and unutilized land in the colleges. Prominent among others who participated in the meeting included; Education Minister Mr. Sikandar Singh Maluka, the Vice Chancellors Dr. Jaspal Singh of Punjabi University, Dr. Ajaib Singh Brar of Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar’,Prof. Arun Kumar Grover of Panjab University Chandigarh and Dr. Rajneesh Arora of Punjab Technical University, Principal Secretary Higher Education Mrs. Ravneet Kaur, Secretary School Education Mrs. Anjali Bhawra, Secretary Finance Mr. Dalip Kumar, Special Principal Secretary to CM Mr. Gurkirat Kirpal Singh, Special Secretary Higher Education Mr. Chander Gaind, DPI Colleges Mr. Tarsem Dhaliwal, Dy. Dir. Higher Education Mr. Jagdeep Singh and Principal Khalsa College Public School Amritsar Dr. Sarvjit Kaur Brar.
Amongst the Principals who attended the meeting included Mr. Sukhbir Singh Thind of Mohindra College Patiala, Mrs. Paramjit Kaur Govt. arts and sports college Jalandhar, Mrs. Bhupinder Kaur Govt. College Gurdaspur, Mr. Paramjit Singh Govt. College Kala Afgana, Mrs. Simrit Kaur Govt. College Mansa, Mrs. Mohinder Kaur Grewal Lala Lajpat Rai Govt. College Dhudike, Mr. Rajinder Singh Govt. College Ludhiana and Prof. Parwinder Singh Dhillon from Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER).