Progress made under RUSA in J&K reviewed; ‘Rs 276.72 crore expended on upgrading Higher Education’
Jammu: The progress under centrally sponsored Scheme Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) in Jammu and Kashmir was today reviewed here at a meeting between Joint Secretary Higher Education, Govt. of India and Commissioner Secretary Higher Education Department UT of J&K, held through video Conference.
At the outset Commissioner Secretary briefed the Joint Secretary Higher Education, Govt. of India, who was also accompanied by National coordinator RUSA about various activities being undertaken at different levels. The Commissioner Secretary briefed that out of a total release of Rs 386.45 crore an amount of Rs. 276.72 crore has been utilized and the balance amount is being utilized under various components of RUSA 1.0 & 2.0.
The Commissioner Secretary informed that in addition to infrastructure development of colleges and universities the Higher Education Department has imparted the vocational and skill development training to 1600 students in different colleges of UT of J&K through IL&FS.
In addition to this a further module of skill development training for 12000 students across UT of J&K and Ladakh is in pipeline and IUST has been enlisted as knowledge partner.
The Commissioner Secretary emphasized that along with infrastructure development the human resource development has been taken as priority sector in Higher Education Department. Under Professional engineering colleges, VIET college of Janglote, Kathua has been started while GCET Safapora will be completed ending December 2020.
In the equity initiative, he said, two girls’ hostels, one at Mendhar and one at Kangan are at various stages of construction and will be ready by March 2021.
He informed that the University of Jammu and IUST Kashmir have made rapid strides in faculty development, research work, enhancing quality and improving the infrastructure. Rs. 40 crore have been utilized and further work is in progress.
“Further, 14 existing colleges have been converted to model colleges by upgrading their infrastructure with an initial amount of Rs. 1.00 crore each” he added.
The Commissioner Secretary also informed that six colleges and one engineering college will be ready for launch at the end of Dec 2020. He also highlighted the various issues with Govt. of India, including pendencies.
The Joint secretary Higher Education Dept. Govt. of India was gracious enough to concede the demands and appreciated the work done by RUSA UT of J&K.
Joint secretary desired to have latest utilization certificates and latest photograph under various component of RUSA and stated that the developmental works should be doubly paced to finish up target before RUSA 3.0 is launched. She was informed with the overall scenario of Higher Education Department UT of J&K and desired few more such meetings in future also.