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Bhubaneswar, Dec 8: In a bid to ensure quality higher education, the state government has requested the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to provide `956 crore under Rashtriya Ucchatar Siksha Abhiyan (RUSA).
“We have requested the Union government to provide the amount under RUSA programme for development of higher education and technical education in the state for three years. We have also submitted detailed proposals to the ministry in the meeting of project appraisal board of RUSA held in New Delhi December 5,” officer-in-charge, state performance tracking cell of higher education department Mihir Das told Orissa POST.
The ministry had in-principle agreed to provide the fund under the programme during current 2014-15 academic session. However, the amount is yet to be approved by the Centre, Das, who also attended the meeting, said. The state government had requested the Centre to provide funds for three academic sessions – 2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17.
The state government had sought around `602 crore for development of higher education and `354.58 crore for overall development of technical education.
The higher education department submitted proposals for creation of universities by upgrading the autonomous colleges, creation of universities by conversing colleges in a cluster, upgradation of degree colleges to model colleges, set up of new model colleges among others, the official added.
Under upgrading the existing autonomous colleges, the state proposed upgradation of RD Women’s College, VD College and GM College and it proposed to merge five to six nearby colleges with Khallikote Autonomous College to set up a cluster university, Das added.
Similarly, the state has sought funds under the head of infrastructure grant to universities, set up of new professional colleges, infrastructure grant to colleges, research, innovation and quality improvement, faculty improvement, institutional restructuring for improvement of technical education in the state.
As per RUSA guidelines, there is a provision of maximum `55 crore for set up of new university, an existing university can avail maximum `20 for infrastructure development and a college can avail `2 crore. The funds approved will be distributed in three years.
