Updated on: Wednesday, February 09, 2011
To revamp the higher education system in Punjab, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal initiated steps to upgrade infrastructure in the state's 55 colleges and fill vacant posts for faculty and other staff.
The Chief Minister specially emphasised on improving facilities in colleges in rural and semi-urban areas as most of them were in a dilapidated condition, an official spokesman said here.
Presiding over a meeting of principals of government colleges and vice-chancellors of universities here, Badal asked the higher education department to submit a comprehensive report on the status of infrastructure and the vacant posts in the colleges to the Principal Secretary within a week so that requisite funds could be allocated.
The Chief Minister also asked the Principal Secretary, Higher Education to take up the matter with Punjab Public Service Commission to allow the state government to fill the vacant posts of college lecturers before the start of the next academic session from July, 2011.
Badal asked officials to convene a departmental promotion committee to fill up the 29 posts of principals which have been lying vacant since long in government colleges.
He also directed that government colleges at Sujanpur in Gurdaspur district and Gurnekhurd in Sangrur district should begin classes from the next session. They had been closed for the want of teaching and non-teaching staff and requisite infrastructure.
Badal emphasised the need to equip all 55 colleges with modern facilities and requisite staff to impart the best education to students especially from the rural areas.
The Chief Minister agreed to a proposal by the principal of Government Sports and Arts College, Jalandhar, which has produced numerous sportspersons, to raise the intake of girls to 50 and boys to 200 under sports category.