JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly today passed the grants amounting ₹ 1201489.52 lakh for School Education department, ₹ 881370.63 lakh for Health and Medical Education department, ₹ 450428.15 lakh for Social Welfare department and ₹ 219340.00 lakh for Higher Education department through voice vote.
The grants were passed after a two day detailed discussion in the house.
Winding up the discussion on Demands for Grants, Minister for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare and Education, Sakeena Itoo, welcomed the suggestions given by the Legislators regarding functioning of the departments under her charge.
She said that the Legislators have spoken about various aspects of School Education, Higher Education, Health and Medical Education and Social Welfare departments. Their suggestions about these sectors will definitely guide the government in addressing the challenges and bringing improvements, wherever required.
Sakeena assured the Legislators that her team will examine the valuable suggestions put forth by them for implementation. She added that efforts would be stepped up to address the issues they have raised during the discussion of Demand for Grants.
While speaking regarding the School Education sector, the Minister said that education is one of the most important sectors upon which the foundation of a nation depends. “Under the visionary leadership of late Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, education sector was given prime importance”, she stated.
She also expressed gratitude to Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, that despite all financial limitations as Finance Minister, he kept extraordinary budget provisions for education sector. She added that this budgetary support will help in improving the quality of education across Jammu and Kashmir.
Reflecting on achievements of school Education sector, Sakeena said that J&K has a distinction of having free education upto university level. She informed the house that J&K has a vast network of 18,724 government schools and 5517 private schools which helped J&K to achieve literacy rate of 77.3%, very close to the National level literacy rate of 77.70%. “Under UT Capex, Samagra, Rs. 739 crore have been approved for infrastructure development which included new school buildings and additional class rooms”, she said.
She also informed the house that after the present government took over, in its first Cabinet meeting, the November session was restored on public demand for the larger benefit of students and parents.
“In order to equip the students with latest methods of education, ICT Labs, Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) and Smart Classrooms have been introduced, which is helping our students to compete at National and International level.
During the current budget, a provision of 600 ICT labs, 2000 smart classrooms and 500 ATLs has been kept to encourage innovation and scientific temperament among the students”, she informed.
The Minister also informed the house that for the benefit of students in remote areas and students belonging to migratory population, 1859 seasonal centres are being run across J&K. She further said that due to various initiatives of the department, students in government schools have been doing very well as is reflected in the board exams. “During last year exams, most of the top positions in all the streams have been achieved by the students of government schools. Even in professional competitive exams, the pass outs of government schools have done tremendously well ”, she informed.
“For encouraging female literacy among the SC/ST population, 89 KGBVs have been made operational, besides 85 girls hostels have been sanctioned in educationally backward blocks”, informed the Minister.
The Minister also said that under Beti Anmol Scheme, more than 12000 BPL girl students have been covered for which an amount of Rs. 7 crore has been spent.
While giving details about health and medical education department, the Minister said that health sector is an important sector which forms the core of a developed society. She informed the house that GMC Anantnag became the first among newly established medical colleges to have a dedicated Cath Lab for South Kashmir region. Besides, a Cath lab is being made operational at GMC Jammu in a week’s time, she added.
She said that Colonel Chopra Nursing Home at GMC Jammu has started services with state-of-the-art machinery to provide affordable and quality healthcare services to the people of Jammu. She also informed that Government Homeopathic Medical College, Kathua, has started its first batch of BHMS students (63 students) from make shift arrangements at GMC Kathua.
The Minister further informed the house that process has been initiated for establishing 250 Bedded Maternal & Child Care hospital at a cost of Rs. 86 crore at Janglat Mandi, Anantnag.
In order to strengthen the health infrastructure across Jammu and Kashmir, the Minister informed the house that some important projects are in pipeline adding that work on AIIMS Kashmir is going at a fast pace and is targeted to be completed by November 2025. She added that additional block at Bone and Joint Hospital, Srinagar, 243 bedded Labour Block at SMGS hospital, Jammu, 125 bedded District Hospital at Reshipora Budgam, construction of 100 Bedded MCH at Lamberi, Rajouri, 16 Critical Care Blocks (50 bedded – 14, 100 bedded -02) at GMCs of Baramulla, Anantnag, Rajouri, Kathua, Doda, District hospital Budgam, Kulgam, Shopian, Pulwama, Ganderbal, Poonch, Reasi, Udhampur, SKIMS- Bemina, CHC Kupwara and Chest Disease Hospital of GMC Jammu will be completed in due course of time. The completion of these vital projects will give a major boost to health sector, improving the patient care drastically, she added.
While talking about social welfare department, the Minister highlighted that during the Budget speech 2025-26, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, announced revision in pension amounts across all beneficiary categories. “To promote equity and sustainability, a graded structure has been introduced to enhance pension amounts in alignment with beneficiaries’ age groups”, she said. She added that as per the new pension structure, the beneficiaries below 60 years will get Rs. 1,250/month; beneficiaries aged 60-79 years will receive Rs. 1,500/month and beneficiaries aged 80+ years will be given Rs. 2,000/month.
The Minister further informed the house that scholarships were provided to 9,668 SC students and we are expanding coverage to 13,000 students. She added that these scholarships, cover tuition fees, maintenance allowances and hostel support for these beneficiaries to help bridge educational disparities and promote inclusive development.
In order to ensure transparency, the Minister said that 28,175 Anganwadi Centers (AWCs) have fully adopted the Poshan Tracker, which authenticated 8,99,000 Aadhaar based beneficiaries receiving supplementary nutrition.
She also informed that 2,120 Sanginis and 2,852 Sahayikas have been engaged, strengthening grassroots service delivery. She further said that 15,929 Anemia Camps have been conducted, benefiting 16,350 anemic individuals.
The Minister further said that136 AWCs in aspirational districts have been converted into Saksham AWCs and 202 more are being upgraded with infrastructure improvements. She also informed that 208 AWCs have been upgraded into Bal-Vidyalayas for holistic early childhood education and 445 are targeted for transformation this year with 69 already completed.
During the reply, the Minister also presented achievements of Higher Education department before the house.
The cut motions on Demands for Grants were later withdrawn by the Legislators.
Legislators Dr. Shafi Ahmad Wani, Pyare Lal Sharma, Devender Kumar Manyal, Irshad Rasool Kar, Mir Mohammad Fayaz, Mushtaq Ahmad Guroo, Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami, Surinder Kumar, Peerzada Feroze Ahmad, Choudhary Mohammad Akram, Dilip Singh Parihar, Er. Khursheed Ahmad, Iftikhar Ahmed, Bharat Bhushan, Shamima Firdous, Aijaz Jan, Dr. Narinder Singh, Mehraj Malik, Mubarak Gul, Pawan Kumar Gupta, Justice (Retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Muzaffar Iqbal Khan, Peerzada Muhammad Syed, Dr. Bashir Ahmad Veeri, Sheikh Ahsan Ahmad, Sajad Gani Lone, Irfan Hafeez Lone, Mohan Lal, Tariq Hamid Qarra, Muhammad Rafiq Naik, Sajad Shaheen, Sheikh Khurshid Ahmad, Bashir Ahmad Kulley, Thakur Randhir Singh, Salman Ali Sagar, Vijay Kumar, Javed Ahmad Mirchal, Dr. Rameshwar Singh, Satish Kumar Sharma, Dr. Sajad Shafi, Abdul Majeed Larmi and Shagun Parihar spoke during the two day discussion on Demand for Grants and raised issues of their respective constituencies.
