RD Women’s College to be first women’s varsity in Odisha

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jan 1:

The Rashtriya Uchhatar Siksha Abhiyan (RUSA) under the Union HRD ministry has accepted the proposal of the Odisha government to confer university status to Rama Devi Autonomous Women’s College in Bhubaneswar. The premier women’s college would be the first women’s university in the state.

RUSA has also approved the proposal of the state government to confer cluster university status to Khallikote Autonomous College in Brahmapur.

Briefing the media today, Higher Education minister Pradip Kumar Panigrahi said all women colleges hitherto under the jurisdiction of Utkal University would now come under Rama Devi Women’s University while the nearby colleges would come under the Khallikote Cluster University.

“The state government would initiate the process for implementation for these two proposed universities very soon,” he said.

Panigrahi said that the state government had decided to implement the process for making the RD Women’s College as the women’s university from the 2015-16 academic session.

As per the decision, the Centre would release Rs 55 crore each for these two new universities in three years under RUSA for infrastructure development.

The state government has also decided to introduce more courses in these two new universities.

The minister also informed that the state government had demanded Rs 956 crore for infrastructure development of six colleges out of which the Centre has agreed to release Rs 200 crore for four colleges under RUSA in three years.