Dr Manohar Singh Gill, union minister of state for sports, today urged the state government to set up hostels for rural girls so that they could excel in higher education.

Dr Gill, who was here to pay obeisance at the Golden Temple, said the prosperity of a society depended on its women and even though Punjab was one of the prosperous states, its women were illiterate compared to other states. He said there was need to improve the educational scenario in the state so that more and more girls could attain higher education.

Lauding the efforts of Cheema, a student of Senior Secondary School at Kairon, who could not win the medal despite her best efforts in the recently concluded Olympics, Dr Gill said he would meet the athlete.

Tarn Taran: The astro turf of the Guru Nanak Dev University’s hockey stadium will be replaced with a new one at a cost of Rs 3 crore, besides the laying of an astro turf track at Government Girls Secondary School, Kairon.

This was announced by Gill after inaugurating certain development works in this border belt.

He said the government was very serious about the development of sports in the country and to achieve results it was concentrating at the grass-roots level.

He said a 60-room youth hostel would be established at Tarn Taran at a cost of Rs 2.5 crore. It would be completed within eight months.

Advocating the establishment of a visa centre in Amritsar to facilitate visits to Nanakana Sahib and other Sikh shrines in Pakistan, he said he had taken up the issue with both governments of India and Pakistan.

Later, the minister laid the foundation stone of a girls hostel at Sri Guru Angad Dev College Khadur Sahib.