J&K gives boost to education with new schools, degree colleges

The Jammu and Kashmir government has decided to set up new degree colleges and upgrade schools with a view to boost the education sector and provide education to all with a special focus on the under-privileged.

J&K’s education minister Syed Altaf Bukhari told the media that the government will soon establish 16 new degree colleges and will upgrade 400 schools. The exercise will benefit thousands of students in far-flung areas who have to, at present, walk miles to go to schools and colleges.

He said he has already passed the orders by virtue of which 200 high schools run by the government would be upgraded to the higher secondary level. He said that 200 government-run middle schools would be upgraded to the high school level.

Bukhari said there was a long pending demand for a degree college in the R.S. Pura sector near the border in Jammu and also in dozens of villages that surround the forests of Pahalgam.

It is in place to mention that the Central government has recently given a lot of funds for the education sector and about Rs 200 crore was released exclusively for J&K to provide better sports infrastructure for the youths, especially girls. Recently, Dineshwar Sharma, the official representative of the Union government to Kashmir, recommended in his interm report a slew of measures which include thrust on education and sports activities for the youth. Jammu and Kashmir Governor N.N. Vohra, who is also the chairman of Shri Amarnathji Shrine Board (SASB), has slated an emergency meeting of the Board in the first week of January 2018. Sources said in the meeting an adverse stand against the recent National Green Tribunal (NGT) verdict might be taken. The NGT had put some strings on the pilgrimage to the main shrine of the Amarnath cave.

According to the officials of SASB, following the outrage by different social and religious organisations against the verdict, a team of lawyers recently discussed the