Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal on Sunday urged the Centre to dedicate the IIM, Amritsar, to Sikhism founder Guru Nank Dev.
She urged Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal to name it as Sri Guru Nanak Devji 550th Centenary IIM. The Minister for Food Processing, while welcoming the HRD Minister for the ground-breaking ceremony of the IIM on Monday, said, “Dedicating the IIM to the Guru Sahab would be a befitting tribute on the occasion of the 550th Parkash Purb (birth anniversary).”
She congratulated Punjabis for the establishment of “yet another world-class institute in the state after AIIMS, Bathinda. “After 10 years of neglect by the UPA government, Punjab has finally become a priority state and has been sanctioned projects like the IIM and AIIMS,” she said, thanking the late BJP leader Arun Jaitley for “heeding to her requests” despite losing the elections from the constituency.
“This is a testament to his love for Amritsar and Punjab,” the SAD MP from Bathinda said. The state’s only IIM, which is being run from a makeshift campus for the past four years, is set to get its own premises after the ground-breaking ceremony on Monday.
Thanking Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Minister said she hoped that the Punjab government would not delay the project “as it has done in the case of AIIMS, Bathinda, by not giving it requisite sanctions in time”. “I hope the IIM, Amritsar, will be completed in record time and will not face any resistance from the Punjab government,” she added.