dehradun

Updated: Sep 02, 2017 20:59 IST

DEHRADUN: The directorate of higher education has sought Rs 200 crore in funds from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the World Bank to provide better infrastructure in degree colleges.

The state government had sought 50% subsidy from the Centre on the project submitted a week ago demanding funds for the strengthening of government and aided colleges. The directorate needs at least Rs 613 crore to provide facilities such as building, furniture, books, laboratories and others.

As per the Directorate records, there are 100 government degree colleges and 18 aided colleges in Uttarakhand. Only 48 government colleges have their own land and building, 26 have land and the buildings are under construction, 9 have land and the construction yet to be done and land acquisition is on for nine colleges. Besides, work is on to make land available for eight colleges that came up in the last two years.

“The funds will be utilised to provide infrastructure to colleges. Once we get the funds, we will disburse Rs 3 lakh each to colleges where there are no furniture, Rs 5 lakh for books and so on,” higher education minister Dhan Singh Rawat told Hindustan Times on Saturday. “I have asked MLAs to provide Rs 5 lakh each from Local Area Development (LAD) funds to the government colleges in their constituency. Twenty-two MLAs have already provided funds and remaining are in the process.”

The minister claimed his effort has led to private universities ‘adopt’ 22 degree colleges under which the former are sharing 5-10% of their annual income for boosting infrastructure.

Soon college marksheets would be linked to Aadhaar, Rawat said, adding Uttarakhand would be the first state in the country to take this step.

Poll for ‘uniform’ at DAV (PG) College

Rawat said voting will be held at the Doon’s DAV (PG) College probably in the first week of October to get the opinion of students whether or not they want to follow the dress code.

The minister claimed students in all government degree colleges were following the dress code while most of the aided colleges have also started doing the same. But both BJP-backed Akhil Bharatiya Vidhyarthi Parishad (ABVP) and Left-backed Students Federation of India (SFI) in this college have disapproved the proposal. The ABVP narrowly won the president’s post in the closely fought student’s union election at the college on Friday.

“The student union elections in Kumaon will conclude on September 25 following which in the first week of October, I will organise voting of students whether they want to follow the dress code or not,” Rawat said.