Chandigarh, April 19- Haryana Chief Minister Mr. Manohar Lal today urged the Vice-Chancellors and Professors of various universities and colleges in the State, in the true spirit of discharging social responsibility, every teacher should take a lead socially in helping the needy in this hour of crisis.

He urged that every University and College should limit their expense to important works only. He further appealed to both the government and private universities and colleges not to insist any student pay the fee during the lockdown period.

The Chief Minister was presiding over a meeting with the Vice-Chancellors through video conferencing here today.

Appealing the Universities conducting various researches, the Chief Minister said that in this hour of crisis the universities should utilize their research work for the betterment of the society by using their research projects to fight the COVID-19 battle. He said that every university should follow the social distancing norm meticulously. He said to ensure that the students do not suffer academically; every university and college should continue taking online classes.

During the meeting, the teachers shared that most of them have already started holding classes on various the E-learning platform. They shared that the live classes with students, online worksheets, PPT presentations, etc are being conducted to help the students to cover their syllabus.

The Chief Minister was apprised that every faculty member is working dedicatedly to ensure that the education material and all academic help should be given to even those children who do not have smartphones. It was shared that through digital learning platforms, most of the Universities and colleges have covered 70 to 80 percent syllabus.

The Chief Minister further asked the teachers to explore the possibilities of conducting online examinations. He said that a meeting of the Higher Education Council should be held soon to chalk out a plan of conducting the same.

In the meeting, Additional Chief Secretary, Agriculture, and Farmers Welfare Department, Mr. Sanjeev Kaushal, Additional Chief Secretary Finance Department, Mr. T.V.S.N Prasad, Principal Secretary Animal Husbandry and Dairying Department, Mr. Raja Sekhar Vundru, Director General Higher Education and Technical Education, Mr. Ajit Balaji Joshi, Director General Agriculture, Mr. Vijay Singh Dahiya, Secretary Finance, Mr. Bhupinder Singh and Additional Director Higher Education, Mr. Arun Joshi were present.