NCSM to set up Science Centres in Tier II cities

Bangalore, Sep 8 (UNI) The National Council of Science Museums (NSCM) is in the process of setting up Science Centres in Tier II cities in the country in association with respective state governments.

Briefing newspersons here, about the National Science Drama Festival-2007 which began here today, Visvesvaraya Industrial and Technological Museum Director, Vasudev Bhat said, NSCM was setting up over a dozen such centres jointly with the state government.

The states would contribute 50 per cent of the cost, while the balance was being funded by NSCN.

''Due to various reasons, the Council has now decided not to run the new science centres on its own and instead will hand over them to the state government. Shortage of staff in NSCN is one of the reasons,'' he said.

The new centres were coming up in Dharwad in Karnataka, Surat in Gujarat, Sholapur in Maharashtra, Kalimgpong in West Bengal and Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. NSCN had recently opened a planetarium named after Kalpana Chawla in Kurukshetra in Haryana, he added.

He said, eight best teams, two each from four zones in the country, had been selected to take part in the science drama festival to help impart non-formal science education among students.

This year's themes for the dramas were 'Bio-diversity' and 'Science and Society', he added.

UNI