Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announces Rs 100 crore assistance for infrastructural development of the varsity
BHUBANESWAR: The five-day platinum jubilee celebration of Odisha’s premiere university, Utkal University, began here Saturday.
Inaugurating the event, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced Rs 100 crore assistance for the infrastructural development of the university.
Patnaik said improving the quality of education at all levels of the education system is a top priority of his government.
He said: The state government has sanctioned Rs 100 crore to Utkal University for opening six centres of excellence.
The Chief Minister called upon the students to contribute for the growth of Odisha and be a part of this “unprecedented development process.”
While paying his tributes to great sons of Odisha, the Chief Minister recalled the contribution of Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati, Pandit Nilakantha Das and Pandit Godabaris Mishra among others who visualised the capitalisation of the states intellectual resources through this university.
“Teachers and students are the principal players in an institution like this. Teaching, learning is an ongoing and evolving process. Management, infrastructure, learning resources and even curriculum are facilitating factors. The outcome of this entire exercise is quality human resource,” he said.
The Chief Minister also inaugurated the Central Instrumentation Centre and Digital Library Building of the university. He also laid the foundation stone for the boundary wall project.
It may be mentioned here that Utkal University is the oldest university in the state and the 17th oldest in the country. The present campus at Vani Vihar in Bhubaneswar is located in the heart of the city and sprawls over 399.9 acres area. This is the largest affiliating university in the country with 267 affiliated general colleges, 15 law colleges, six medical and pharmacy colleges.