Counselling for admission to colleges outside Jammu and Kashmir under Prime Minister Special Scholarship Scheme (PMSSS) began today in which around 6,600 students are expected to participate.
The counselling is being held at Amar Singh College here and Government College for Women at Gandhi Nagar in Jammu.
"As many as 6,600 students have registered for PMSSS across the state and their counselling will continue till August 3 during which 400 students will be counselled every day," said J-K Education minister Naeem Akhtar who visited the counselling centre here to review the arrangements.
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He said, besides general courses, 2000 seats are this year available to the students of Jammu and Kashmir under PMSSS in the NBA accredited engineering colleges across the country, while 369 seats are available in the various Nursing Colleges.
Akhtar said 10 supernumerary seats are available in each All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE)-approved engineering college with a limit of two seats per branch, two supernumerary seats are available in general stream in UGC- approved colleges and three supernumerary seats are available in nursing institutions.
"Scholarships worth Rs 75 crore are available to the students under PMSSS in this financial year," he added.
Akhtar said tuition fee of the students admitted under PMSSS would be directly transferred by AICTE to the college concerned, while maintenance charges, including hostel fee, books and stationery among others would be transferred to the account of the student concerned under Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).
For general courses, upto Rs 30,000 per annum would be available as scholarship under PMSSS, upto Rs 1.25 lakh per annum for engineering courses and upto Rs three lakh p.A. For medical/dental courses, he said.
"Besides, every student would be entitled for upto Rs one lakh per annum as maintenance charges," he said, adding students taking admission by virtue of their own merit in IITs, NITs and Central Universities outside the state are also eligible for scholarship under PMSSS.
The Minister said in view of the prevailing law and order situation, the government has made arrangements for boarding and lodging for the students and their guardians at the hostels in Amar Singh College, SP College and Women's College.
He said if a student misses the counselling on the assigned date due to some unavoidable reasons, he or she can appear on the next date.
"However, such students will get the slot and the college available as per the merit list of the day on which they appear for the counseling," he said.
