Regulatory authority to be set up for pvt colleges, univs:

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh today said a regulatory authority will be soon set up for private universities and colleges coming up in the state, and spell out a series of steps which his government intends to take to improve the standard of education.
"This is something that has been very controversial. Lot of people have been lobbying against it, but I think it is absolutely essential that we must have a regulatory authority for our private universities and colleges that are coming up," Singh told reporters here during his first major interaction with them since assuming charge as chief minister in March.

He said the regulatory authority will check that the "colleges and universities have proper curriculum, proper staff to teach and facilities for them to live in".
Punjab Chief Secretary Karan Avtar Singh, DGP Suresh Arora and CM's media advisor Raveen Thukral were also present during the media interaction.
Singh also said that English as a medium of instruction for class I would be started in a phased manner.
"From the class X, we are also giving an option to allow Mandarin (Chinese), French and Italian be as an optional language," he said, highlighting that there has been a demand from students to learn foreign languages.

Singh said that a central institute for promotion and development of Punjabi language would come up at Talwandi Sabo, while two new Sainik schools in Gurdaspur and Mansa would be established.

He also said that in keeping with Congress' poll promise, free Internet facility would be provided in all government colleges and all girl students will get free education.
He announced that horticulture university will be set up in Abohar. He also clarified that the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) would not be bifurcated but act as mentor to the new university and provide the latter with transit accommodation.
Singh also announced a special drive to fill the vacancies of super specialists in the field of health, adding that a new medical college would be set up in SAS Nagar (Mohali).

He further listed various pension enhancements and housing schemes for homeless urban SC/BC categories to underline his government's commitment to social welfare, which also included increase in reservation quota for BCs and SCs in education and government schemes, respectively.
The Chief Minister also spoke about the women empowerment, irrigation and rural development programmes, which had already been announced by the government earlier, to underline his government's commitment to holistic development of all sections of Punjab's populace.
He also mentioned a new scheme 'The Punjab Financial Assistance to Acid victims Scheme 2017' under which Rs 8,000 monthly financial aid will be provided to the acid attack victims.