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Sonia: backward districts will have 370 new degree colleges

Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Saturday announced that 370 new degree colleges would come up in educationally backward districts of the country.

Delivering the convocation address at the Jamia Hamdard University here, she said: “The UPA government has come up with many programmes to focus on traditionally disadvantaged sections, which is why it has vastly expanded scholarships for minorities, the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes, Other Backward Classes and girls.”

Whereas in the Tenth Five Year Plan, eight per cent of the total allocation was for education, it was increased to 20 per cent in the 11th Plan, she said, largely because of the impetus given to higher and technical education.

“The fundamental responsibility of the government is to provide education. With increasing enrolment, we must improve the quality of all educational institutions, harness information technology and adopt state-of-the-art technology and equipment.” She extended support to Jamia Hamdard’s effort at setting up the Hamdard Institute of Medical Science.

Ms. Gandhi gave away 84 Ph.D. degrees and 93 gold medals to meritorious students for the academic period 2005-07. In all, 2,000 students received their degrees at the convocation.

Vice-Chancellor Shamim Ahmad honoured Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai and nuclear scientist Anil Kakodkar with honorary D.Sc. degrees. Congratulating the University on its growth since the former Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, inaugurated it in 1989, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh said in these times, it was important to address the issues of access and equality.

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