Chandigarh seeks to attract more student volunteers

CHANDIGARH - In a bid to rope in more students as volunteers, the Chandigarh administration will set up National Service Scheme (NSS) units under the self-financing model in all educational institutions, an official said Wednesday.

According to the official, a directive on this has been received from the union ministry of youth affairs and sports.

“The communiqué directs us to establish self-financing NSS units in all higher educational institutions, including all streams like medical, engineering, commerce and arts,” said Ajoy Sharma, Chandigarh’s director of higher education.

“Under the self-financing scheme, the government will not provide any grant to the institute, but the NSS volunteers will get all benefits like a certificate and extra weightage in marks at the time of admission. The directive stems from the target of having 50 lakh NSS volunteers by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan (2007-2012,” he said.

Sharma said that presently the NSS strength is 32 lakh and the remaining 18 lakh volunteers would be enrolled through the opening of self-finance units in government as well as private educational institutions in the coming days.

Bikram Rana, state liaison officer of Chandigarh NSS cell, said: “Self-financing NSS units will expand the horizon and now we would have a bigger youth force engaged in different social activities.”

“The student strength (in Class 11 and above) in Chandigarh is 74,269 out of which, 12,800 are NSS volunteers in nearly 128 NSS units. The self-financing NSS units will be set up to add maximum students as volunteers out of the remaining strength of 61,469,” said Rana.