Harsimrat urges Centre to name IIM Amritsar after Guru

After 10 years of neglect by UPA govt, Punjab has finally become a priority state and has been sanctioned projects like the IIM and AIIMS. HARSIMRAT KAUR BADAL, Union minister

CHANDIGARH: Union minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Sunday urged the Centre to dedicate the Indian Institute of Management (IIM Amritsar) to Guru Nank. She urged Union HRD minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to name it as Sri Guru Nanak Devji 550th Centenary IIM.

Welcoming the HRD minister for the groundbreaking ceremony scheduled for Monday, the minister for food processing industries said: “Dedicating the IIM to the Guru Sahab would be a befitting tribute on the occasion of the 550th Parkash Purb.”

She congratulated Punjabis for the establishment of “wyet another world-class institute in the state after AIIMS, Bathinda.

“After 10 years of neglect by the UPA government, Punjab has finally become a priority state and has been sanctioned projects like the IIM and AIIMS,” she said, thanking the late BJP leader Arun Jaitley for “heeding to her requests” despite losing the elections from the constituency. “This is a testament to his love for Amritsar and Punjab,” she said.

The state’s only IIM, which is being run from a makeshift campus for the past four years, is set to get its own premises after the ground-breaking ceremony on Monday. Thanking PM Narendra Modi, the minister said she hoped that the Punjab government would not delay the project. In a tweet on Sunday, she said: “After continuous struggle and stiff resistance, AIIMS Bathinda is finally ready, hope the @captamarinder govt in Punjab can for once put its ego and political opportunism aside to think of the welfare of the people and help us get IIM Amritsar campus underway in record time”.