Stone Of Guru Granth Sahib University Laid

[saint-soldier]

Stone of Guru Granth Sahib varsity laid

Jangveer Singh

Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, September 1

The stage has been set for the establishment of the first-ever university in the name of a holy book, with Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal today laying the foundation stone of Guru Granth Sahib World University here.

The Sri Guru Granth Sahib Fourth Centenary Memorial Trust will manage the university, which will come up near the historic Fatehgarh Sahib Gurdwara. The 11-member trust is headed by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbadhak Committee (SGPC) chief Avtar Singh Makkar and includes Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, state Advocate-General H.S. Mattewal, former chief secretary R.S.Mann, four SGPC members, including Bibi Kiranjot Kaur and Dr Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia (as its secretary), besides others.

Contrary to popular perception, the university will be in keeping with modern times and trends, and besides a school of religious and civilisation studies, the institution will also have a school of emerging technologies, school of basic sciences, school of management, school of social sciences, school of arts, school of languages, school of engineering, school of architecture and planning and school of law and social justice.

Talking to TNS, university vice-chancellor Jasbir Singh Ahluwalia said the varsity would neither be religion-based or religion-dominated. The university would take up the teaching of emerging technologies like information technology (IT), biotechnology (BT) and nano-technology, besides other emerging disciplines like ecology, human rights, feminism and empowerment of downtrodden, he said.

Ahluwalia said it would not be possible to give reservation to rural students in the new university under the present UGC norms. The university would, however, hold orientation courses of four to five months duration to ensure that rural students were eligible to take admission in the institution on merit. He also disclosed that only SGPC colleges would be affiliated to the new university.

The university will come up on 84 acres given to the Trust managing it by the SGPC. The work is expected to start soon and presently only the foundational monument - Minar-e-Ekonkar has come up on the site.

SGPC president Avtar Singh Makkar said the varsity would collaborate with other universities worldwide. He said the first academic session would start from September 2009 and that the SGPC would spend Rs 50 crore in the first phase of the Rs 450-crore project. The university proposed to have 2,500 students on its roll in three years.

Later, the Chief Minister said the establishment of the university would be a boon to students of the area who would be able to get education in the most recent emerging fields. SAD president Sukhbir Singh Badal said the government was laying stress on education and that the Granth Sahib University was part of a wider plan to establish world-class learning centres in Punjab.

[apne]

Theres also World Sikh University coming up.