After the second round of counseling for the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) 3788 students from Jammu and Kashmir have secured admission in various colleges outside the State.The second round of counseling under PMSSS was held at National Institute of Technical Teachers Training & Research (NITTTR), Chandigarh.Pertinently, as many as 3554 students from Jammu & Kashmir have secured admission in various professional and other colleges outside the State in many of the reputed institutions under the first round of counseling conducted in Srinagar and Jammu between 26 July 2016 and 3 August 2016.According to a spokesman of the Education Department, nearly 8000 students registered themselves for counseling under PMSSS including 3300 in Srinagar centre and 4500 in Jammu centre. He said after the final round of counseling, 37888 students from J&K have secured admission in various professional and other colleges outside the State. He said 2534 students have secured admission in engineering colleges, 1084 in general courses and 170 in medical courses.
“This year response to the scheme was overwhelming and large number of students were registered under the scheme and secured admission in various streams including two new streams that were introduced from this admission session viz Hotel Management and Catering Technology (HMCT) and Nursing streams,” an Education Department spokesperson said.The spokesman said that unlike last year when only 2 seats were being allotted per college to the students under PMSSS, this year 10 seats per college have been allotted.The spokesperson also said that for the current financial year, an amount of Rs 75 crore worth scholarships is available to J&K students under PMSSS. He said while upto Rs 30000 per annum would be available as scholarship under PMSSS for general courses, upto Rs 1.25 lakh per annum would be available for engineering courses and upto Rs 3 lakh per annum for medical/dental courses. Besides, every student would be entitled upto Rs 1 lakh per annum as maintenance charges, he said and added that the students taking admission, by virtue of their own merit, in institutions like IITs, NITs and Central Universities outside J&K are also eligible for scholarship under PMSSS.