After the recent announcement for establishment of 40 new Government Degree Colleges across Jammu and Kashmir, civil society members from Darhal tehsil gathered here at Dak Bungalow on Friday and constituted an Action Committee.
The committee has launched a protest in support of their long pending demand for sanctioning and establishing a degree college in Darhal.
Advocate Zahid Sarfraz Malik, chairman of the Action Committee, said, “After the introduction of Right to Education Act, enrolment in educational institutes of Darhal has reached respectable levels at the primary and secondary level. To enable these enrolled participants to compete in a dynamic world, the government needs to consider providing regulatory support, for higher education to adopt niche and futuristic institutions.”
“Darhal is one of the remote and backward tehsils of the state with a population of more than 65,000, mostly comprising of lower economy class families. Besides, up to 70 per cent of the population is under the age of 35 years and most of the inhabitants depend on agriculture, rearing animals and labour work for their sustenance,” he further said.
Malik added that at present, in Darhal, there are more than 200 government and private institutions from primary to higher secondary and approximately 10,000 students with equal number of girls and boys. “But after higher secondary, 95 percent students are not able to continue their studies because of non availability of a Degree College in Darhal,” he maintained.
He said that a feasibility report, prepared by the committee constituted by deputy commissioner Rajouri, has already been submitted to the Higher Education department.
The members appealed to the Governor to intervene in the issue and “rescue the students of Darhal.”