Bhawanipatna: The tribal-dominated Kalahandi district remains etched in public memory as one of the most backward regions in the state. But at present, it’s breaking the shackles of stereotypes and dogmas by establishing itself as a hub of higher education.
Today, it is taking decisive steps towards becoming a storehouse of schools, universities, medical colleges, agricultural universities, and various educational institutions.
The region is steadily scripting its own unique model of development, pacing itself through the state government’s Transformation of Aspirational Districts programme.
Aiming to improve the socio-economic status of the district, the state government is consistently monitoring the relative progress of the district by introducing residents to basic amenities such as health, education, agriculture.
The first college of the district is Kalahandi College which was established in 1960 by the initiation of then Member of Parliament Pratap Kishore Deo along with some other educationists and the same was established as government Kalahandi Science College in 1961.
After struggling for 39 years, the higher education department had declared the college as Kalahandi University.
It is notified that Kalahandi University will be started by the coming academic year starting from June 2020. After this notification, the students of this region will get a proper education facility for their bright future.
In 2009, the state government gifted the district with its first engineering college i.e. Government College of Engineering, Kalahandi at Bandopala under Sadar block. The college is functioning as a constitute college of BPUT, Odisha.
1,184 students from electronics, civil, mechanical and computer science study in this college which has the required infrastructure to be declared as a university. The students hope that in future the state government will award the college a university tag.
In 2004, the state government established Sardar Raja Medical College at Jaringa of the district. Due to some reason, the government had to stop the academic seasons in the college.
However, the state government has sanctioned Rs 202.39crore for the proposed medical college and hospital at Bhangabari in the district. Construction work of the college is going on. Students from the district and outside the district will be facilitated with a medical degree after the completion of the college.
In 2009, a 216-seated Government Agricultural College was established in the district. Now the seat numbers are upgraded to 240.
The government had established Agricultural Advertisement Center and Gramin Krusi Moushumi Seva Kendra in 1995 and 200 respectively.
To give a boost to the agricultural sector in the district, the state government had established the Regional Research Diagnostic Center (RRTC) centre in 1983 in order to introduce farmers on various agricultural technology. This the first research centre in Odisha which is working on processing cotton, castor seeds and soybean.
The centre has been conducting special research on varieties of Basmati rice.
As Kalahandi is the land of agriculture the state government is planning for a second Agricultural College.