Monday, October 31, 2005

 

‘RLTAP office should be in KBK’

http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEQ20051030004954&Topic=0&Title=ORISSA&Page=Q

A snippet from it:

BHUBANESWAR: Union Minister of State for Planning M V Rajasekharan on Thursday took strong exception to the location of the headquarters of the Revised Long Term Action Plan (RLTAP) in the Capital City.

Rajasekharan, who reviewed the implementation of the RLTAP and Backward District Initiative (BDI) in the State Secretariat here, said that the headquarters should be located at one of the central places of KBK region where it is being implemented. He also met Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and discussed ways to create employment opportunities in the fishery and horticulture sectors.

Stating that expenditure of funds should be properly monitored, the Minister advised the State Government to create two separate divisions in the KBK region to be headed by deputy administrators. He also underscored the need for regular monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the programme.

The Minister suggested that more agriculture development centres and two agriculture and veterinary colleges should be opened in the KBK region. He said that plans for the KBK region should be prepared from the district-level keeping the requirements of local people in view.

 

Why KBK Central University is a good idea?

Their are two kinds of Central universities in India. (The list is at http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/utype.php?st=Central%20University ) Some are central universities based on their quality and their expertize in one or more specific fields. Examples of these include JNU, Vishwa Bharati, etc. While others such as most of the ones in the north eastern states such as NEHU, Tejpur, Mizoram U, Nagaland U etc. have a different purpose.

The proposed KBK Central University will be of the second kind, to cater to the (people in the) mountainous backward areas of central India with lots of adivasis, who are much more educationally and economically backward than the people in the north east.

A comprehensive university will allow people in this area easy access to higher education thus having a cascading effect. For example, more people with BEd and MEds means more qualified teachers in the area, more qualified teachers means better high schools and so on.
But a state govt funded university will not work well for the reason below.

The importance of it being designated a central university is that, this designation attracts people from all over India to apply for employment there. (For example, I know of many Oriyas who have moved to teh north east to take up central govt. jobs. Central govt. jobs seem to have some kind of allure and stability and perhaps a bit higher pay and benefits that
makes them attractive.) This is important because, often there is a lack of will among good educated people to move to KBK area for a job.

Finally, there is a large body of funds assigned to KBK projects. So the university could be set up using part of these funds.

Saturday, October 29, 2005

 

The structure

Since KBK is a vast area, the university should be distributed across a few towns in the KBK regions. Possible towns include Koraput, Rayagada, Bhawanipatna, Jeypore and Balangir.

 

Introduction: Plans for a KBK Central University in Orissa

A snippet from: http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-oct24-statesman.pdf

Statesman News Service BHUBANESWAR, Oct. 24. — Chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik today urged the Centre to accord approval for a central university in the undivided Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) districts, besides expediting setting up the proposed Regional Centre of Studies in Integrated Sciences at Bhubaneswar. These requests were made by the Chief minister during his meeting with the Union Human Resources Development minister Mr Arjun Singh at New Delhi today. Mr Singh sought a formal proposal from the state government for the establishment of a central university in KBK region while appreciating the rationale behind the idea, said an official release.

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?