Himachal Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Thursday said that it was for the first time that about 30 new schemes have been announced in the State Budget proposed for the year 2018-19.
The Chief Minister while speaking at a function in Maharaja lakshman Sen Memorial Degree College in Mandi said that the Cluster University of Mandi district would be set up by spending an amount of Rs55 crore. Out of this Rs11 crore each would be spent at Sundernagar, Drang and Basa under Cluster University and the remaining amount would be spent at Mandi campus.
He said that 10 Adarsh Vidhya Kendras would be opened in different parts of the state for providing quality education to the students. The State Government has also proposed a new scheme for coaching to the meritorious student for competitive exams. The students passing out from their educational institutions would provide their old book to other needy students under the ‘Pustak Daan Yojana’, said Thakur.
The Chief Minister said that Mandi district was the second largest district of the state and special emphasis would be laid on the development of the district.
lashing out at previous Congress Government, he said that instead of focusing on quality, the previous government announced opening of 16 degree colleges in the State with a provision of Rs1 lakh each for every announced colleges.
All this was done to gain political mileage, which has make mockery of the whole system. The present State Government was not against opening of these institutions, but there should be some rational thinking over the same, said Thakur.
He further said that there were many schools which have very strange imbalance in teacher-student ratio. Since the students were the future of a nation, stress should be laid in best infrastructure and staff, said the Chief Minister.
The State Government would provide all possible help to the government aided colleges in Himachal as they were supplementing the endeavour of the Government to provide good education to the students, added he.