Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today sought the personal intervention of the President of India Mr Pranab Mukherjee for upgrading the education in University, College and school level to impart quality education to the meritorious students of the poor and weaker sections of the society.Addressing the gathering here during the third convocation of the Lovely Professional University (LPU) here today, which was presided over by the President of India, the Chief Minister emphasized that a sizeable chunk of the country’s population was still living in the rural areas. However he said that the lack of the environment and facilities coupled with poverty was depriving the poor and meritorious students from the access of quality education. Mr Badal bemoaned that the intelligent and meritorious students who, despite of the adverse circumstances score very well in school education don’t get the appropriate opportunity for higher education.
The Chief Minister urged the President to direct the Government of India (GoI) to give special attention towards solving this grave problem and frame a scheme for imparting quality higher education to the poor but meritorious students. He said that with the world emerging as a global village the students of the state have to compete with the youth across the state who were studying in the best institutions. So Mr Badal urged the President to make stupendous efforts to ensure that the universities of the country should impart quality education to youth especially to those belonging to the border areas of the country, as per the global standards.
Terming, Mr Mukherjee as most learned, experienced and brilliant statesmen of the recent times besides being the constitutional head of the country, the Chief Minister expressed hope that he would take unprecedented steps for ensuring the quality education to the youth. Underlining the importance of education in the life of a person and in the development of the nation, he said that Punjab Government has made all out efforts for promoting the education in the state. Reiterating the commitment of the state government to impart quality education to the students belonging to the poor and weaker strata of the society, Mr Badal said that the Punjab government has set up nine new universities and 17 new colleges for this purpose.The Chief Minister further said that owing to the concerted efforts of the state government Punjab has been rated as number one state in School infrastructure by National University of Education Planning and Administration (NUEPA) adding that in the Education Development Index (EDI) rank of the state went up to third from 14th.
On the occasion the Chief Minister also requested the President of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Dr Hamid Karzai, who was the special Guest on the occasion, to use his good office for checking the smuggling of the Heroine drug from their country to the state. Mr Badal lamented that Punjab which was known as the granary of the country besides being the sword arm of the country and had made tremendous sacrifices in the national freedom struggle was combating the problem of drug trafficking the state. He said that the unabated supply of Heroine from Afghanistan has emerged as a major problem for the state which needs to be checked immediately.
The Chief Minister urged Dr Karzai that as this was an emotive issue for the Punjabis so he had raised this matter in front of him from all the residents of the state. Mr Badal said that though he knew that sometimes it was not in the hands of the governments to tackles such contentious issue but he expressed hope that Dr Karzai would take Path breaking initiatives to redress this problem of the state.
Later in his address the Punjab Governor Mr Shivraj V Patil said that the Universities have an enormous responsibility for building the Nation through the enrichment of higher education system and it was, therefore, imperative that there was an ideal integration of programs of teaching, research, work experience and community development to enhance professional competence of our students to enable them to contribute to the Nation. Congratulating the students who were going to receive their degrees during the convocation, Mr Patil said that the students after leaving this university should try to be good citizens of the world, and the country. He said that the knowledge could not have boundaries and limitations as it was bound to be, non parochial, non global, not universal, but cosmic.
Laying thrust on the need of women education the Governor said that it was not only the need of the hour but a major necessity for uplifting and educating the society. He said that the majority of the medal winners of the universities were girls, which was reflective of their indomitable spirit to excel in every sphere of life. Mr Patil said that the country could advance in any sector if the women education was promoted effectively.
Prominent amongst those present on the occasion included Cabinet Ministers Mr Chunni Lal Bhagat and Mr Sarwan Singh Phillaur, Chief Parliamentary Secretaries Mr Som Parkash and Mr Avinash Chander, State BJP Chief Mr Kamal Sharma, Chief Editor of Ajit Group of Newspapers Dr Barjinder Singh Hamdard, Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister Mr SK Sandhu, Special Principal Secretary to Chief Minister Mr KJS Cheema, Deputy Commissioner Kapurthala Mr DS Mangat, Chancellor of Lovely Professional University Mr Ashok Mittal and Pro-Chancellor Mrs Rashmi Mittal.