Jammu & Kashmir students would get additional quota of seats in Paramedical & Hotel Management degree courses and first time 06 seats on offer from ISRO for degree courses in Space, Science and Technology at ISRO under the Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) for students of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.This was revealed during a meeting of Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education Talat Parvez, with chairperson, AICTE, New Delhi, regarding Prime Minister’s Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) for students of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.The meeting was attended by Director Colleges, Director School Education, Nodal Principal Jammu, Nodal Principal Srinagar and Consultant, PMSSS.Under the scheme 5000 scholarships are offered to the students of Union Territory of J&K and Ladakh on merit basis in top 200 NIRF and government approved AICTE Institutions which are NBA accredited.For the current year, 40 seats under Central IHMS (National Council for Hotel Management and Catering Technology) and 6 supernumerary seats in Indian Institute of Space, Science and Technology, (ISRO) have been made available under the scheme.Further, the seat criteria within an Institution in respect of Nursing, HMCT and Pharmacy have been increased from 3 to 5 seats within the Institution so that the students are able to be accommodated in groups in an Institution.
The courses and the scholarships under the scheme are 2070 General Degree seats with Rs 30,000 scholarship PA and Rs 1 Lakh per year maintenance payable to students; 2830 Professional Degree seats with up to Rs 1.25 Lakh PA and Rs 1 Lakh per year maintenance payable to students; 100 Medical/ BDS or equivalent, medical stream with up to Rs 3 lakh PA scholarship and Rs 1 Lakh maintenance.Meanwhile it was informed that department is going to establish a dedicated helpline to address the queries of the students regarding the process for availing the scheme for which special experts have been engaged.The Doordarshan and the Radio Kashmir would also conduct live phone-in programme on the merits of the scheme. At the meeting, Talat Parvez laid stress on conduct of job fair and starting of polishing courses so that the degrees are more job oriented.The Chairman AICTE was requested to start the Financial Services, law services, IT Services, Food Technology, Fashion Technology, Agriculture and allied sector courses and all others, which have more scope for employability at national and local job market. The Chairman, AICTE agreed at the request of Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education to have more job fairs in the Union territory of J&K and Ladakh so that the students who have completed the degrees under PMSSS and also from other Institutions are able to get employment in the private sector.The queries raised by the Members of AICTE regarding the Domicile issue were cleared by the Commissioner Secretary, Higher Education and they were satisfied with the reply and decided to complete the process within the scheduled time frame.