Minister for Education Syed Mohammad Altaf Bukhari today said the Government is fully prepared to make the twin Cluster Universities functional in the state from the current academic session.The Minister asked the Vice-Chancellors of these varsities to focus on realizing the envisioned objective of bringing up these newly established institutions as centres of excellence in of higher learning.The Minister said this while chairing a high level meeting to discuss broad counters of making these Universities operational from the current session.Established through a legislation passed by state legislature, the two Cluster Universities, one each for Jammu and Srinagar, have been approved under Rashtriya Uchchttar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) against a total allocation of Rs 110 crore ( Rs 55 cr for each University). Minister of State of Education and Tourism, Priya Sethi was also present on the occasion.
The meeting was attended by Financial Commissioner Planning and Development, B B Vyas, Commissioner Secretary Higher Education, Dr Asgar Samoon, Commissioner Secretary Finance, Navin Kumar Choudhary, VC Cluster University Jammu, Prof Anju Bhasin, VC cluster University Kashmir, Prof Javed Ahmed Sheikh and other senior functionaries of the government and the twin varsities.Asserting that the students have been pining high hopes on these new Universities, the Minister asked all the government departments to extend every possible support to make this mega educational venture to grow into premier institutions of the state. He assured full support from his side also. However, he asked the VCs not to lose the focus on the core objective of making these varsities centres of excellence in research, modern education and promotion of job-oriented courses.The meeting reviewed all the aspects related to operationalization of these newly established varsities, including provision/ recruitment of staff, financial implications, development of infrastructure and other aspects.