President Pranab Mukherjee to visit Jammu on Monday

Jammu: President Pranab Mukherjee will be arriving here on a two-day visit tomorrow during which he will attend a convocation at Jammu University, being held after a gap of seven years, and inaugurate facilities for pilgrims at Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine. On his maiden visit to the winter capital of Jammu and Kashmir, the President will be chief guest tomorrow at the 14th convocation of Jammu University, where he will be addressing the students besides presenting Gold medals and Ph D degrees to them. [caption id=“attachment_1690175” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  President Pranab Mukherjee. AFP[/caption] The last convocation of the varsity was held on 15 July, 2007, which was attended by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In total, 67 candidates who completed their Doctorates in the year 2013 in seven faculties shall be awarded Ph D degrees and 68 candidates shall be awarded with the University Gold Medal and cash awards. J-K Governor NN Vohra, Chancellor of the University, shall preside over the convocation where Chief Minister Omar Abdullah, who is also Pro-Chancellor of the varsity, will be the Guest of Honour. The University will be organising a Special Convocation on 16 September, at which the Ph D degrees and Gold medals shall be awarded to candidates from the sessions 2006 to 2012. The President will visit the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine on Tuesday where he will inaugurate the ‘Shridhar Elevator’, a lift meant to carry mainly old and needy people from the main track straight to the Bhawan near the shrine. The elevator bridges the gap of the final 127 steps to reach the shrine. It will be open to the general public from Wednesday. The President will be taken in a battery car after ‘Darshan’ at the shrine to the newly constructed ‘Panchi Helipad’ near the Bhawan before his departure for Delhi on Tuesday. Ahead of the VVIP visit, the Governor made a final review of the arrangements. PTI