CHENNAI: The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has requested engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu to lend support in building ‘model villages’, which is an initiative under the Prime Minister’s Sansad Adarsh Gram Yojana.
Under the scheme, he had asked all MPs to develop a model village in their constituency to develop entrepreneurship and provide employment opportunities there. Around 1,000 villages across the country have been identified for developing them as model villages. This is an intiative by the AICTE in association with Indo-European Chamber of Small and Medium Entreprise.
A four-day national level conference will be held at the AICTE headquarters in Delhi on October 29. Students from all identified villages of Tamil Nadu will come up with presentation on the requirements in their respective areas.
AICTE Regional Chairman R Balamurugan said the council has formed a committee for identification of the institutes in every district of the country and would link AICTE approved institutions with villages adopted by MPs for development. “Currently, only 214 villages have been identified. In Tamil Nadu, 26 to 27 villages have been identified so far,” he said.
He said currently the main focus in the villages is to provide entrepreneurship and employment opportunities. “The AICTE approved institutions can support in any aspect. They can provide medical help, educational facilities to poor students. They can provide admission to poor students free of cost or take up environmental causes. We will discuss all these in the national conference on October 29,”said Balamurugan adding that a total of 1350 AICTE approved institutes in Tamil Nadu have been requested to participate. By Saturday, the council would have the number of institutes which are willing to take part.
The Regional chairman also said during the India International Science Festival, students from both government and private schools, along with a science teacher from each of these villages had given presentation on the requirements of their respective villages. “This again was evaluated by two professors from reputed colleges which will be further discussed and presented in the presence of the Prime Minister during the national conference,”he said.