Owing to Punjab’s success in the field of imparting quality education to the students, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal on Monday envisioned the State as a hub of ‘education and healthcare services’ across the country.
Addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone of the Central University of Punjab at Ghudda, Badal said that the Punjab Government has taken unprecedented steps to boost education sector in the State as a result of which the State has emerged as a leading State in the country in field of education.
“Apart from setting up 10 new universities and 17 degree colleges, the State Government has also given due emphasis on strengthening the infrastructure in Government schools across the State. Bathinda, which is once considered as an educationally backward district in the State, has now housed five new universities to impart quality education to the youth,” he said.
The Chief Minister said that special focus has been laid by the State Government to provide state of the art medical facilities to the people.
Urging the Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani to open meritorious school in every block of the country, Badal said that it would prove to be a boon for bright students from economically weaker sections of the society.
“This experiment has proved to be extremely successful for the state government to raise education standard besides beneficial for students too, who are now striving hard to seek admission in these prestigious schools with a sense of healthy competition,” he said.
Striking an emotional chord with the farmers of the state, Badal assured the cotton cultivators that the state government would soon compensate them for heavy loss incurred by them. “The state government is well aware of their hardships and every effort would be made to bail them out from this hour of crisis. The state government has recently taken steps to rescue to cane cultivators from the prevailing crisis,” he said.
SUKHBIR ANNOUNCES ONE lAKH NEW JOB FOR YOUTH
Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Badal said that one lakh Government jobs would soon be advertised and every assembly constituency would get Rs 25 crore for carrying out the development works.
“Special attention would be paid to the laying of sewerage. State Government would spend Rs 800 crores in the next year and half for giving concrete shape to the water channels in the Bathinda district and also solve the problems of the district concerning water on which Rs 2000 crore would be spent,” he said.
Sukhbir also said that today is a historic day for the Malwa region, especially Bathinda, as a novel beginning has been made in the field of education.
“On the completion, the university would impart quality education to 18,000 students who would be given every possible facility. A budget of Rs 2,000 crore has been earmarked for this purpose,” he said.
IRANI SEEKS VITAl TIE-UP WITH FOOD PROCESSING MIN
Union HRD Minister Smriti Zubin Irani, in her address, said that Punjab must take the lead of introducing farm techniques, water, rural and food processing management courses in the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) set up at Amritsar so that the rest of country should follow it.
Irani also mooted a proposal for possible tie up between the Union HRD Ministry and Food Processing Ministry chalking out a roadmap for expansion of food processing industry in the state by imparting education to the students.
The Union Minister also announced that the new campus of the Central University of Punjab would be ready within 18 months. “The university would act as a catalyst of education in the entire region as world renowned experts from across the globe would be roped in to deliver important lectures to the students,” she said.
Irani hoped that this university would play an instrumental role in checking the brain drain of the region by open new vistas of employment in education sector for them.