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Free education for girls in Punjab? Awaiting notifications for 21 months

PATIALA: Twenty-one months on, Punjab chief minister’s vision to provide free education to girls has failed to see the light of the day. What is more interesting is the fact that the government of Punjab did not issue even a single notification in this regard.


On June 19, 2017, Captain Amarinder Singh had announced in the state assembly to provide free education to girls in all state-run institutions.

Following the announcement, a wave of confusion enveloped state-run universities and institutions, which were already facing severe financial crisis and anticipating grants from the government, which itself was cash starved.

When asked if government-run educational institutions were given directions to provide free education to girls, principal secretary of higher education, Punjab, S K Sandhu said no notification had been issued till date to any governmentrun education institution.

Cabinet minister Razia Sultana and education minister O P Soni could not be reached for their comments.

Meanwhile, it has been learned that a few months after the announcement, staterun universities, medical colleges, and other institutions were asked to provide details of girl students, who were enrolled in various courses. The details were then submitted to education department. The data highlighted that in all state-run universities, including Guru Nanak Dev University in Amritsar; Punjabi University in Patiala; IK Gujral PTU in Kapurthala; Punjab Agriculture University in Ludhiana; Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Technical University (MRSPTU) in Bathinda; and Baba Farid University of Health Science (BFUHS) in Faridkot, girls have outnumbered boys.

PAU vice-chancellor B S Dhillon said, “We haven’t received any notification from the state government yet. The registrar has already submitted details to the state, highlighting total strength of girls.”

“We were asked to submit details of number of girls and their courses in the university and its colleges. However, since then no notification pointing at providing free education to girls has been received,” said Punjabi University registrar Manjit Singh Nijjar.

A senior official of the university, who did not wish to be named said, “The university earn over 75% revenue from admission fee, of which over 70% fee is paid by girls from rural areas, who are economically weaker. The initiative to provide free education is appreciated, however, the university cannot waive the fee of all girls as it will take toll on the university’s financial health at the time when the state government has failed to provide grants being demanded by the varsity for a long time.”

“It is surprising that even after two years and two budgets, the state has remained mum on its promise. The government has given its citizens false hopes,” said Sukhjinder Singh, a resident of Patiala .

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