Bhubaneswar: The Higher Education department Friday declined the proposal of Utkal University which sought financial support from the Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC) under Industry-Academia collaboration for development of the Geology department. Utkal University situated in the state capital had proposed for a one-time financial support of Rs 10 crore and annual financial support of Rs 2 crore for 10 years, aiming to develop and modernise its Geology department.
Higher Education Secretary Saswat Mishra, in a letter to Utkal University VC Sabita Acharya, said that the university is getting funds from government regularly for various purposes. It currently has a huge amount of available, totaling more than Rs 500 crore. A big portion of that available fund is meant for infrastructure development of the university. There is no need to seek external financial support, either from OMC or from anybody else, Mishra said.