LADHOWAL (LUDHIANA) APRIL 15: Punjab Chief Minister Mr. Parkash Singh Badal today announced that Punjab government would soon set up a World Class Multi-disciplinary University in the state to impart quality higher education to the students to enable them to compete globally.
Mr.Badal announced that the state government would involve the corporate sector in streamlining, modernizing and broad basing education both at the school and the college and university levels. The government was already in touch with the leading corporate houses in the country in this regard and would welcome their participation in the multi-facility also. This university would be in addition to the central varsity envisaged for the state.
Presiding over a function to mark the inauguration of Satya Bharti School programme of Bharti Foundation here, Mr.Badal said that education was the core sector of any economy or a nation that results in far more improved human resource development. He said that the concept of Adarsh School was a step in this direction to provide quality education to the underprivileged children who could not be exploit their potential due to penury. He praised the efforts of the Bharti Foundation for imparting quality education to the poor. He assured fulsome support and cooperation to the Bharti foundation for furthering its mission to spread education in every nook and corner of the state.
As a revolutionary step, the state government had already under taken a massive programme for the up gradation of 351 senior secondary government schools at a cost of Rs.142 crore to provide quality education in the science and commerce stream. Three such schools would be set up in each assembly constituency in addition to the Adarsh schools.
On the recruitment of 14000 teachers under various categories for the government schools, Mr.Badal said that the entire process had been completed in a transparent manner and the appointment letters were being issued by the state education department in a phased manner to enable them to join their duties during the current academic session.
Appreciating the role of Bharti Foundation, Information & Public Relations Minister Mr. Bikram Singh Majithia said that the foundation had already taken a lead for establishing 100 village primary schools in the state. He said that eight Satya Bharti Primary schools and 21 community centers were already operational in Punjab with more than 1200 children and over 100 teachers.
Earlier, Mr.Badal lighted a lamp to mark the inauguration of the school and presented a certificate of merit to a student of 5th class who secured 84% marks.
On the occasion, Mr. Rakesh Bharti Mittal, Vice Chairman Bharti Enterprises said that with more than 300 million illiterate children in India in the age group of 7 years and above providing access to quality education was a major challenge for the country. The Satya Bharti school programme was a unique example of a public-private partnership to create temples of learning for underprivileged children in particular the girl child. He said that we believe that this initiative would provide an opportunity to thousands of underprivileged children to be a part of mainstream education and offer them with a platform to participate in the nation’s economic growth.
Later Managing Director Bharti Enterprises Rajan Bharti Mittal proposed a vote of thanks and said that "With the Satya Bharti School programme we are committed to provide the best of infrastructure and teaching facilities to children. We believe that this initiative will go a long way in filling the need gap for education in rural areas and benefit the economy of the region at large".
Later addressing the media persons, Mr.Badal said that the Ministry of Civil Aviation has accorded in principle approval to set up a domestic airport at Sahnewal to provide air connectivity to Ludhiana – the industrial hub of the state. He said that the expansion of civil aviation was on the top of agenda as the Airports Authority of India had already cleared the proposal for setting up of an International Airport at Mohali for which a memorandum of agreement had also been signed. Apart from this Guru Ram Das International Airport at Amritsar is also being upgraded to launch more international flights. He said that though the international airport at Mohali would be completed within next two years but international flights to and fro would commence with in next 6 months. Likewise the Ministry of Civil Aviation had also acceded to the state government’s proposal to allow domestic flights from Bhishiana Airport near Bathinda which would be soon developed as a civil airport terminal to accommodate more national as well as international flights.
Asked to comment on the procurement of wheat, Mr.Badal expressed satisfaction over the purchase of wheat and said that there was no ban on the private traders to procure wheat from the mandis. He said that even the Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar during his recent visit to Chandigarh had categorically stated that the Centre had not imposed any sort of ban on the purchase of wheat by the private traders.
Referring to the initiatives taken by the state government in the power sector, Mr. Badal disclosed that the state government had asked the Punjab State Electricity Board to set up three additional units one each of 500 MW at Guru Gobind Singh Thermal Plant Ropar, Guru Hargobind Thermal Plant Lehra Mohabbat and Guru Nanak Dev Thermal Plant Bathinda. He said that with the setting up of these units in the existing thermal plants power generation capacity would be enhanced from the existing 6500 MW to 8000 MW. He said that these proposed thermal units would be cost effective due to the existing infrastructure and technical support. He stated that the by the end of 2012 the total generation capacity would cross 10000 MW with the commissioning of three upcoming thermal plants at Talwandi Sabo, Rajpura and Goindwal Sahib.
Reacting sharply over the steep price rise during the last six months, Mr.Badal blamed UPA government for its ill-conceived economic policies that resulted in the inflationary rate of 7.8% as compared to the national growth rate of 9%. He said that Centre should immediately take corrective measures to check the inflation especially the prices of essential commodities that had adversely affected the common man.
Prominent amongst others who were present on the occasion included Member Parliament Sharnjit Singh Dhillon, Chief Parliamentary Secretary Harish Rai Dhanda, SAD General Secretary Maheshinder Singh Grewal, Mr.Darshan Singh Shivalik MLA Dakha, Vetern Akali Leader Jagdev Singh Talwandi, SAD President Ludhiana Rural Santa Singh Umaidpuri and former MLA Inder Iqbal Singh Attwal.