New Delhi, July 27
Four months after the PM’s Expert Group on Employment in Jammu and Kashmir made far-reaching recommendations to integrate the state’s youth into the national mainstream, the Centre has finalised a scheme to foot the higher education bill of Kashmiri youth studying in colleges outside the state.

The Central Sector Scheme (one that’s fully funded by the Centre), ready for approval by the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) which meets here tomorrow, will offer 5,000 scholarships annually for five years to J&K students interested in pursuing general, medical or engineering education in government or private colleges across India, but outside J&K. Over five years, the Centre will foot the entire higher education bill (including tuition fees and hostel costs) of 25,000 J&K students studying anywhere outside the state.

The idea is to end the alienation of Kashmiri students and help them become part of the national stream and find job avenues across the country.

This division is also based on the recommendations of the PM’s Group which former RBI Governor C Rangarajan had headed. Presenting his report to the government on March 3, Rangarajan had said that the committee had, in their meetings with the J&K youth, sensed their eagerness to flourish in life.

The Group had been set up at the peak of violent protests the Valley had witnessed in the summer of 2010 following the death of a young student in the crossfire.

The 78-page Rangarajan report had talked of educating, training and employing one lakh Kashmiri youth outside the state to help them rebuild lives. Access to higher education was a major part of the recommendations.