Punjab govt announces grant of over Rs 2 cr for colleges

Chandigarh, May 11: Punjab government today announced a financial grant of Rs 2.35 crore for forty-seven government colleges in the state to provide special facilities to girl students, disabled and poor students.

The Higher Education Department has worked out a special component grant of Rs 5 lakh for each college that would be utilised for uplifting the higher education standard of girl students, poor and disabled students, an official spokesman said here.

He said that instructions were issued to all colleges to utilise this grant to make colleges disabled-friendly to ensure access of every disabled student to all facilities being offered by 47 colleges.

The grant of Rs 2.35 crore would also be utilised for providing free specialised coaching to poor, disabled and girls students so that they could compete with normal students on equal footing, the spokesman said.

Reiterating the commitment of the SAD-BJP government to uplift the education standard of the poor, he said that this grant would be utilised for evolving disabled-friendly computer programs, providing internet facilities to such students besides ensuring gender equality in the 47 colleges.

He said that instructions have already been issued to each co-education college to ensure separate toilets for girl students as per the standard lay out plan provided to them.

The Punjab government released Rs 59 lakh to the colleges today and the remaining grants would be released shortly, he said.