Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma addresses a press conference in Lucknow on Jan 8, 2017
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh SharmaIANS

To maintain the quality of higher education and provide a conducive environment for research work, the Uttar Pradesh government has decided to set up special research centres in universities, Deputy Chief Minister Dinesh Sharma said Saturday.

"Rs 5 crore has been sanctioned for establishing a centre of excellence in DAV College, Kanpur in memory of its alumnus and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee," he said.

The government has set up Deen Dayal Upadhyay Research Centre in 15 state universities and a decision has been taken to establish Mahayogi Guru Gorakhnath Research Centre in Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University, he said.

In Mahayogi Guru Gorakhnath Research centre, the stress would be on reshaping theology, teachings and experiments of Mahayogi Guru Gorakhnath, Sharma said.

He said it has been decided to develop an international Buddhist centre and centre for excellence in Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism in Siddharth University Kapilvastu, Siddharth Nagar.

According to Sharma, to augment capacity the state would encourage the opening of more universities in the private sector.

Under new norms for starting a university in private sector, the land requirement for the urban area would be only 20 acres as against 40 acres now and in the rural area only 50 acres as against 100 acres.

He said 736 teachers working in aided private degree colleges on fixed remuneration have been absorbed as a regular teacher.

The government has also decided to open 48 new postgraduate colleges, provide more leave facility to teachers, relax experience limit for principals of private degree and postgraduate colleges, and increase by 20 per cent the house rent allowance of government postgraduate college teachers, he said.

He said the aim was to provide a conducive environment to teachers so that they can give their best to students. According to Sharma, the remuneration of teachers working in private aided colleges has been enhanced.

Free Wi-Fi facility has been installed in 138 government colleges and 489 aided private colleges, the deputy chief minister said.