Medical, eng colleges in islands?

Port Blair, Nov 9: Following the directions of Calcutta High Court, the Union government has constituted a committee to study the feasibility for setting up medical and engineering colleges in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, official sources here said today.

The committee was constituted under Chairmanship of the Chief Secretary of Andaman and Nicobar administration after a directive came from the Union Home ministry.

The other members of the committee are Prof K L Chopra, Former Director, IIT-Delhi (Nominee of All India Council for Technical Education), Prof MP Kapoor, Former Director, Thapar Institute of Engineering&Technology (Patiala) (Nominee of All India Council for Technical Education), Dr PH Ananthnarayanan, DDG (Medical), M/o Health&Family Welfare, Dr Asha Thomas, Director (Medical Education), Ministry of Health&Family Welfare, Secretary (Education), A&N Administration, while the Director of Health Services, A&N Administration will be its Member Secretary.

The committee members will soon visit these remote Indian islands to have an understanding of the local situation and will interact with various groups of stakeholders before submitting their recommendations.

The Committee members are scheduled to visit here from November ten to 14, an official release said here. The members will also meet the prominent citizens of these islands to get the public opinion.

Andaman and Nicobar Islands does not have any medical or engineering College and for this reason hundreds of students are forced to go to mainland India for persuing higher studies.

There is a longstading demand for setting up an engineering and a medical college to this union territory.

UNI