Minister of State for Higher Education Ms. Priya Sethi, while replying to a question of Aga Syed Mahmood Mosavi, informed the house that the State Government has recently approved the opening of 17 new Degree Colleges in the State.The Minister informed that the newly sanctioned colleges shall be established in the uncovered areas of the State. She informed that the department has set in the process to identify the places for the opening of new colleges so that academic activities are started as soon as possible. Ms. Priya Sethi said that the new colleges would be opened in a particular area, subject to the availability of requisite land, preferably state land and feasibility of demand which also includes a sufficient number of feeding Higher Secondary Schools. The priority shall be accorded to uncovered Assembly Segments which are presently deprived of the facility.
Pardeep Sharma and Surinder Kumar Choudhary raised supplementary questions.Replying to a separate question of Mohammad Muzaffar Parray, the Minister informed that Kashmir University is offering transport facility to its students from Srinagar to Baramulla and vice versa on a nominal fare, adding that a large number of Students of North Campus are availing the facility. She informed that University has created hostel facility at North Campus and same shall be operational from the next academic session.The Minister informed that the University has made temporary arrangements of accommodation for female students of the campus in the hostel of Government Degree College Boys Baramulla, while as male students of the Campus have been accommodated in a private building hired by the University.
“The Campus is a full-fledged Satellite campus of the University offering several courses for last one decade and does not intend to shift its students to the main campus,” the Minister said and added that University is in a continuous endeavour to upgrade the infrastructure/facilities at all its satellite campuses to make them more student friendly.Replying to another question by Showkat Hussain Ganai, the Minister informed that establishment of national level institutions like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and National Institute of Technology (NIT) in different states of the country is the prerogative of the Union Government. She said in J&K the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development (UMHRD), has sanctioned National Institute of Technology (NIT) for Srinagar and Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) for Jammu. She further informed that off Campus of IIM, Jammu has been sanctioned for Kashmir Division and state has also requested UMHRD to sanction off Campus of Jammu IIT for Kashmir Division.