Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs (CCPA) on Thursday decided to recommend convening of Winter Session of Parliament from November 16 to December 16. The meeting of Cabinet also approved starting of Indian Institute of Management in Jammu with an out campus in Kashmir under the Prime Minister’s development package for the State.
The Winter Session dates have been advanced as in the past it was normally convened in the third or fourth week of November. An early session may help the Central GST (CGST) and Integrated GST (IGST) legislations, which will pave way for the Goods and Services Tax (GST), to be approved within November or latest by early December. The Government is also considering advancing the Budget Session by a month or so starting from January next year.
The issue of the Army’s surgical strikes across loC and allegations by some parties that the Government was trying to politicise the issue are set to grab the limelight during the session.
Jammu will have the country’s 20th Indian Institute of Management (IIM) with the academic session starting this year while an out-campus will be set up in Kashmir later. Also, the modernisation of infrastructure in NIT-Srinagar campus will now begin as funding of Rs 100 crore has been approved for the purpose besides a Rs 50-crore project for seven hostels for girl students- three in Jammu region, three in the Valley and one in leh, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters here after a Cabinet meeting.
NIT-Srinagar was hit by student unrest following a clash between local and outstation students in April this year. The new IIM would start functioning temporarily at Old Government College of Engineering and Technology from the Academic Year 2016-17. The project will involve a cost of Rs 61.90 crore in temporary campus for the initial four years from 2016 to 2020.
“I am happy that the 20th IIM has been approved by the Cabinet today. We have already started the academic session because the announcement for its operationalisation from 2016-17 session was made in the budget itself," Javadekar said.
“In around 67 years of independence, 13 IIMs were set up while 7 new IIMs have been set up in the past two years only,” he said. According to an official statement, issued after the Cabinet meeting.
“Steps would also be taken up for setting up (IIM) campus at Jammu and an out-campus in Kashmir region.
“This is a part of the Prime Minister’s development package for Jammu & Kashmir. The institute, coupled with opening of IIT at Jammu, modernisation of NIT Srinagar and opening of two new AIIMS institutions, one each in Kashmir region and Jammu region, would go a long way in meeting the requirement of high quality living and education in the State,” the statement said.
At present, there are 19 IIMs. Out of these, 13 are located at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode, Shillong, Ranchi, Raipur, Rohtak, Kashipur, Trichy, Udaipur. Another six IIMs which have been started in 2015 are located at Amritsar, Sirmaur, Nagpur, Bodhgaya, Sambalpur and Vishakhapatnam.