Chief Minister, Mehbooba Mufti reviewed the pace of work on several upcoming educational and technical institutes in the State at a high level meeting of officers here today.These include IIT, Jammu; IIM, Jammu and their off campuses in Kashmir; NIT, Srinagar and Government Colleges of Engineering & Technology at Jammu, Kathua and Safapore.Minister for Education, Syed Altaf Bukhari and Minister of State for Education, Priya Sethi were also present in the meeting.Addressing the meeting, the Chief Minister underscored the need for early completion of works on these projects so that the students get the benefits of these educational institutes at the earliest. She expressed satisfaction over the pace of work on the IIT and IIM at Jammu and directed early operationalization of their off campuses at Srinagar so that these institutes take off optimally.Mehbooba Mufti urged the managements of these institutes to undertake quality research activities besides routine academic works to make them fully independent in terms of academic activities. Besides, she also urged these institutes to introduce such elements in their curriculum which have a local relevance and the State is adequately positioned on the academic and research canvas.
The meeting was informed that the IIT, Jammu has started functioning from transit accommodation with seven disciplines and an enrolment of 120 students. It is expected to reach a target of 220 faculty and staff members with 1260 students by 2020, the meeting was informed.Similarly, the meeting was informed, IIM, Jammu has been operationalized with two batches with very high standards of academics. Efforts are on to set up off campuses of these two premier institutes at Srinagar, the meeting was told.Expansion of NIT, Srinagar and the progress achieved on Engineering Colleges at Safapora and Kathua were also reviewed by the Chief Minister during the meeting.Earlier, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, Dr. Asgar Samoon gave a detailed presentation on the status of these projects and overall scenario of the Higher Education in the State.Chief Secretary, B. B. Vyas; Union Secretary, Higher Education, Kewal Kumar Sharma; Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Rohit Kansal; Principal Secretary, Finance, Navin Choudhary; Commissioner Secretary, PWD, Sanjeev Verma; Commissioner Secretary, Revenue, Shahid Inayatullah; Secretary, PHE, Irrigation & Flood Control, M. Raju; Directors of IIT, Jammu, IIM, Jammu, NIT, Srinagar; Vice Chancellor, BGSBU and representatives from other universities and colleges besides senior officers attended the meeting.On the occasion, the Chief Minister released the first issue of Research Journal in Mathematics & Computer Science of the State Higher Education Department.