All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in collaboration withDepartment of Higher Education organized a one-day awareness workshop on Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) for students from J&K for academic year 2018-19 at Government Women College, Gandhi Nagar here today.Minister of State for Education, Technical Education, Culture and Tourism, Priya Sethi was the Chief Guest on the occasion.Addressing the gathering, the Minister said that Prime Minister’s Scholarship Scheme has proved to be a boon for the students of J&K and more students from the state must avail its maximum benefits.She emphasized upon creating a massive awareness of this initiative taken by the government for providing a platform to the students of J&K. Priya stressed on organizing more workshops for creating awareness regarding PMSSS especially in far areas to reach out to the underprivileged sections of the society. The prime objective of PMSSS is to empower the youth of the state to adopt a better outlook on their educational and career prospects, she affirms.She said that such workshops provide a vital opportunity to students and parents to get their doubts clarified from the visiting resource person from AICTE and also advised them to not get trapped by middlemen or agents.
Director, AICTE for PMSSS, Dr M S Manna highlighted the various features of the scheme and assured the right guidance to the students during their selection for the scholarship. He explained how students can register online and get and their documents verified and what precautionary measures have to be taken during registration, verification and counselling.Under this scheme, the students of the state are offered scholarship for pursuing undergraduate courses in Medical, Engineering and general streams outside the state. The amount of scholarship is paid by AICTE.It was informed in the workshop that Students having domicile of Jammu & Kashmir, passing 10+2 examination from J&K Board or CBSE located in J&K, willing to study outside the State, having family income of Rs. 6.00 Lakh or below per annum are eligible to avail benefit under the scheme.Besides, every student will be required to give preferences of colleges and allotment of seats will be made through counselling only.In academic year 2017-18, more than 3200 students were reported under PMSSS and for 2108-19, the scheme is set to surpass the previous year’s figures.Director, School Education Jammu, Ravinder Singh, Joint Director, School Education, Charanjeet Singh, Special Secretary, Higher Education, Nitu Gupta, Nodal Officer of PMSSS, Dr AjitAngral, Education officer, UGC, Dr Shalini besides Principals of different colleges, Higher secondary Schools, students and parents were present on the occasion.