Budget Session 2025: House passes grants of edu, social welfare, H&ME deptts

Jammu, March 13: The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly today passed the grants amounting ₹ 1201489.52 lakh for School Education department, ₹ 881370.63 lakh for Health and Medical Education department, ₹ 450428.15 lakh for Social Welfare department and ₹ 219340.00 lakh for Higher Education department through voice vote.
The grants were passed after a two day detailed discussion in the house.
Winding up the discussion on Demands for Grants, Minister for Health and Medical Education, Social Welfare and Education, Sakeena Itoo, welcomed the suggestions given by the Legislators regarding functioning of the departments under her charge.
She said that the Legislators have spoken about various aspects of School Education, Higher Education, Health and Medical Education and Social Welfare departments. Their suggestions about these sectors will definitely guide the government in addressing the challenges and bringing improvements, wherever required.
Sakeena assured the Legislators that her team will examine the valuable suggestions put forth by them for implementation. She added that efforts would be stepped up to address the issues they have raised during the discussion of Demand for Grants.
While speaking regarding the School Education sector, the Minister said that education is one of the most important sectors upon which the foundation of a nation depends. “Under the visionary leadership of late Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, education sector was given prime importance”, she stated.
She also expressed gratitude to Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, that despite all financial limitations as Finance Minister, he kept extraordinary budget provisions for education sector. She added that this budgetary support will help in improving the quality of education across Jammu and Kashmir.
Reflecting on achievements of school Education sector, Sakeena said that J&K has a distinction of having free education upto university level. She informed the house that J&K has a vast network of 18,724 government schools and 5517 private schools which helped J&K to achieve literacy rate of 77.3%, very close to the National level literacy rate of 77.70%. “Under UT Capex, Samagra, Rs. 739 crore have been approved for infrastructure development which included new school buildings and additional class rooms”, she said.
She also informed the house that after the present government took over, in its first Cabinet meeting, the November session was restored on public demand for the larger benefit of students and parents.
“In order to equip the students with latest methods of education, ICT Labs, Atal Tinkering Labs (ATLs) and Smart Classrooms have been introduced, which is helping our students to compete at National and International level.
While giving details about health and medical education department, the Minister said that health sector is an important sector which forms the core of a developed society. She informed the house that GMC Anantnag became the first among newly established medical colleges to have a dedicated Cath Lab for South Kashmir region. Besides, a Cath lab is being made operational at GMC Jammu in a week’s time, she added.
She said that Colonel Chopra Nursing Home at GMC Jammu has started services with state-of-the-art machinery to provide affordable and quality healthcare services to the people of Jammu. She also informed that Government Homeopathic Medical College, Kathua, has started its first batch of BHMS students (63 students) from make shift arrangements at GMC Kathua.
While talking about social welfare department, the Minister highlighted that during the Budget speech 2025-26, Chief Minister, Omar Abdullah, announced revision in pension amounts across all beneficiary categories. “To promote equity and sustainability, a graded structure has been introduced to enhance pension amounts in alignment with beneficiaries’ age groups”, she said. She added that as per the new pension structure, the beneficiaries below 60 years will get Rs. 1,250/month; beneficiaries aged 60-79 years will receive Rs. 1,500/month and beneficiaries aged 80+ years will be given Rs. 2,000/month.