Bhakta presents Task Force his edu plan for Kalahandi

The Pioneer, Feb 8, 2010
Pioneer News Service, Bhubaneswar

Member of Parliament from Kalahandi Bhakta Charan Das has a big agenda on higher education. He has flooded the State’s Task Force on Higher Education with several demands. The Task Force, set up by the State Government on October 7 last year, is meeting here on Tuesday to finalise a detailed report to be presented to the Government.

Das on Saturday sent a memorandum to Task Force chairman Triclochan Pradhan, asking for at least three universities and a few other centres of higher learning in Kalahandi district. He has also sought another university-level institution in the neighbouring Nuapada district.

Das’ demands include a higher educational and research centre like the National University in Kalahandi. Secondly, he wants the 50-year-old Government Autonomous College at Bhawanipatna to be elevated to university status.

Another university-level organisation, National Institute of Basic Science and Research Institute, like the NISER of Bhubaneswar, has been demanded by Das at Nuapada. He has also demanded that the private medical initiative being initiated at Jaring in Kalahandi be taken over by the Government and it must run as a Government medical college. Similarly, he has sought an agricultural university at Dharmagarh and a Government engineering college at Dharmagarh.

Das has stated that the undivided Kalahandi district in particular and the KBK region in general have the lowest Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in the State. The schemes now suggested by him could have been mooted and implemented by policy makers earlier, felt he. But unfortunately, the planning bodies did not pay their attention consciously and deliberately in the past, he rued.