CHANDIGARH:  The Punjab government today inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with 'Punjab Un-aided Technical Institutions Association' (PUTIA) to provide 10% seats for Poor meritorious students free of cost in the Technical Educational Institutions running undergraduate Degree Programmes in Engineering and Technology, HMCT, Pharmacy Architecture, Arts & Crafts.

On the behalf of the Punjab Government the Principal Secretary Technical Education & Industrial Training Ms. Tejinder Kaur and on behalf of PUTIA  J.S. Dhariwal, President of the Association signed this MoU in the presence of Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal.

Speaking on the occasion the Chief Minister said that this was the first time in the country that such historic MoU was being signed more over it would fulfill the SAD-BJP Government's commitment to impart free quality education to the poor & unprivileged intelligent students in Degree Courses under various disciplines in the state. He further mentioned that the state government would grant 10% seats addition to the sanctioned strength of each Institution. The Chief Minister categorically said that it would be made mandatory for all the Government Promoted, Private Aided and Private Un-aided Institutions to implement this scheme w.e.f. session 2008-09.

Giving the details of the MoU the Media Advisor of the Chief Minister  Harcharan Bains informed that out of these free seats, 33% seats would be reserved for girl candidates, 50% for economically weaker and 17% for physically challenged candidates. The fee for these students would be completely waived off including Tuition fee, Lodging and Boarding fee, Transportation Transfer fee, Institutional charges and University funds where the income of the candidate is less than Rs.2.5 lakh/annual and in all other cases only tuition fee would be waived off as prescribed in the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) policy, said Bains.

Regarding the economic selection criteria,  Bains said that the Chief Minister directed that a committee comprising the head of the particular Institute and respective Deputy Commissioner would finalize the select under this category and monitoring would be done by the Punjab Technical University/Directorate of Technical Education and Industrial Training Department Punjab  

Prominent amongst those who were present on the occasion included Technical Education Minister Punjab Ch. Sawrna Ram,  Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister . D.S. Guru, Additional Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister  A.K. Mahajan, Secretary Higher Education Ms. Anjali Bhawra, Director, Technical Education & Industrial Training  G. Rakesh Kuma,   Manjit Singh (Doaba Group of Colleges), Satnam Singh Sandhu (Chairman, Chandigarh Group-Landran Collage), Gurvinder Singh (Rayat Group of Colleges), Dr. Zora Singh (Desh Bhagat Group),  Sukhdev Kumar Singla (Indo Global), Manmohan Kumar Garg (Swami Vivekanand Institution) and Jagdish Singh Garcha beside senior functionaries of the state administration.