PUNJAB CM DREAM PROJECT RUNS INTO ROUGH WEATHER
Chandigarh August 12:
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's dream project of providing free technical education to the poor and not-so-poor brilliant students with a family income of Rs 2.5 lakh per annum, seems to be stuck in the official rigmarole.
Over a month after the scheme was conceptualised, the notification is yet to be issued, sending thousands of students in a tizzy. With the counselling for the engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture courses of colleges affiliated to Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, well underway, officials' "delaying tactics" threaten to deprive the students of the benefits of the scheme if it was not implemented from this academic session.
A consensus on the scheme was hammered out at a meeting between Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association (PUTIA), an apex body of the 142 private institutions in Punjab, recently. In fact, guidelines of the AICTE already make provisions for the tuition fee waiver for certain categories, including the economically backward students in the technical institutions in the country.
An MoU among PUTIA, PTU and the Punjab government was to be signed to pave way for the implementation of the scheme which was touted to be a boon for the not-so-privileged students. In fact, Naresh Nagpal, director, technical education, Punjab, had gone on record saying that the scheme would be implemented from the current academic session. However, time seem to be running out for the Punjab government as the counselling for various courses was already midway.
In the backdrop of the dilly-dallying attitude of the authorities concerned, the colleges are at their wits' end about the proposed scheme. "For a long time the government had been dubbing the private colleges as money-minting institutions. However, when these colleges are ready to implement the free education scheme as part of their social responsibility, the government seems to have developed cold feet on the issue,” a PUTIA office-bearer on condition of anonymity.
Chandigarh August 12:
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's dream project of providing free technical education to the poor and not-so-poor brilliant students with a family income of Rs 2.5 lakh per annum, seems to be stuck in the official rigmarole.
Over a month after the scheme was conceptualised, the notification is yet to be issued, sending thousands of students in a tizzy. With the counselling for the engineering, management, pharmacy and architecture courses of colleges affiliated to Punjab Technical University (PTU), Jalandhar, well underway, officials' "delaying tactics" threaten to deprive the students of the benefits of the scheme if it was not implemented from this academic session.
A consensus on the scheme was hammered out at a meeting between Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and the Punjab Unaided Technical Institutions Association (PUTIA), an apex body of the 142 private institutions in Punjab, recently. In fact, guidelines of the AICTE already make provisions for the tuition fee waiver for certain categories, including the economically backward students in the technical institutions in the country.
An MoU among PUTIA, PTU and the Punjab government was to be signed to pave way for the implementation of the scheme which was touted to be a boon for the not-so-privileged students. In fact, Naresh Nagpal, director, technical education, Punjab, had gone on record saying that the scheme would be implemented from the current academic session. However, time seem to be running out for the Punjab government as the counselling for various courses was already midway.
In the backdrop of the dilly-dallying attitude of the authorities concerned, the colleges are at their wits' end about the proposed scheme. "For a long time the government had been dubbing the private colleges as money-minting institutions. However, when these colleges are ready to implement the free education scheme as part of their social responsibility, the government seems to have developed cold feet on the issue,” a PUTIA office-bearer on condition of anonymity.
