Chandigarh: Today i.e. on March 31, 2010, the Chief Minister (CM) Parkash Singh Badal has given the final approval to the Vice Chancellor (VC) of Guru Nanak Dev University Prof A S Brar, to open a centre at the Khalsa College Public School at Amritsar, from the academic session 2010-11. The main purpose of setting up such a centre is to prepare rural students of the state for admission to Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT).
As per sources, thedecision to this effect was taken by Mr Badal at a meeting. The meeting was attended by Principal Secretary to Chief Minister D S Guru, Principal Secretary Technical Education Suresh Kumar, Secretary Planning Satish Chandera and Director Technical Education B Purushartha besides Prof Brar. He directed the Secretary Planning to make a budgetary allocation of Rs 139.17 lakh for the proposed centre in the state annual plan. The Chief Minister has also asked the Vice Chancellor to run this centre in such a manner that the students with rural background could reap enormous benefit through this novel scheme.
During the meeting, Mr Badal has also mentioned that this centre would be run through a society under his chairmanship with 12-14 other members including Principal Secretary to Chief Minister, Principal Secretary Higher Education, Principal Secretary Finance besides others to be nominated later on. Initially, the programme would be run for 50 students selected through a state level entrance test and the eligibility criteria would be matriculation, education from a rural school in Punjab and annual income of less than Rs two lakh.
