Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, Nov 12: Adopting ordinance route, the State Government is all set to make the proposed Cluster Universities in Jammu and Srinagar functional from the forthcoming academic session thus enabling hundreds of more students to pursue higher education through regular mode.
The draft ordinance in this regard, prepared by the Department of Higher Education, is being sent to General Administration and the same is likely to be cleared by the State Cabinet in its next meeting for its promulgation after the Governor’s nod, authoritative sources informed the Excelsior.
The Department of Law is learnt to have vetted the draft ordinance, which has been now sent to the Finance Department for its concurrence and forwarding the same to GAD for further action, sources added.
Pertinent to mention that the Union Ministry of Human Resources Development is establishing two Cluster Universities, one each in capital cities of the State, under Rashtriya Ucchtar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA), for which the process of building infrastructure has also been set into motion. The each Cluster University will be spreading in five existing Government colleges in the capital cities where Schools of different faculties are to be established.
The Cluster University in Jammu will be functioning in GGM Science College, Government MAM College, SPMR College of Commerce, Government College for Women Gandhi Nagar and Government College of Education, Canal Road while the proposed Cluster University in Srinagar will comprise Amar Singh College, SP College Srinagar, Women College MA Road, GDC Bemina and the College of Education, Srinagar. The Union Ministry of Human Resources Development has sanctioned Rs 55 crores for the each cluster university.
Since the Cluster Universities will formally come into existence only after enactment of legislation by amending Jammu and Kashmir Universities Act, sources said that the State Government has preferred to adopt ordinance route for this purpose.
The ordinance route has been adopted to ensure commencement of admissions in these universities from the forthcoming session as passage of a Bill in the State Assembly for amending J&K Universities Act is understood to take some time and the delay could hit commencement of the session in Kashmir, sources explained.
PG admissions in Jammu are conducted by the ending of July while in Kashmir, the same begin by the ending of February.
Ten schools of different faculties will be opened in these cluster universities where a number of course, including Post Graduation, Under Graduation and Diploma, in different subjects and streams will be introduced. The each Cluster University will have one nucleus college with an Administration Block, Central Library and an auditorium. For the Cluster University Jammu, GGM Science College will act as the nucleus college while for the Cluster University Srinagar, SP College Srinagar is the nucleus college.
At the Cluster University Jammu, School of Sciences will be made functional at GGM Science College, School of Humanities and Arts at MAM College, School of Social Sciences at SPMR College, School of Technologies at GDC Gandhi Nagar and School of Teaching Education at Government B Ed College Canal Road.
Similarly at the Cluster University Srinagar, School of Sciences will be opened in GDC Bemina, School of Teaching Education in Government College of Education Srinagar, School of Social Sciences in SP College Srinagar, School of Engineering and Technology in Women College MA Road and School of Humanities & Liberal Art in Amar Singh College.
According to the sources, work for construction of administrative blocks, Canteen and class rooms etc for the proposed universities has been going on with full swing and is likely to be completed soon.
When contacted, the Minister for Education, Naeem Akhtar confirmed that the process was on for promulgation of ordinance on the Cluster universities and the Government was hopeful to start admissions in both the new varsities from the forthcoming session.
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