Odisha: Extension of autonomous status of Dhenkanal College urged

BHUBANESWAR: Higher education department on Thursday urged the University Grants Commission (UGC) for extension of autonomous status of Dhenkanal College in Dhenkanal district.
On November 1, the UGC standing committee had decided not to extend autonomous status of the college. It has also advised the college not to take admission from the academic year 2020-21 under autonomous status.
Higher education secretary Saswat Mishra in his letter to the UGC said that Dhenkanal is an aspirational district declared by NITI Aayog.Centre's aspirational district programme aims to uplift and transform the districts those have shown relatively lower progress in achieving key socio-economic development indicators.
"Withdrawal of autonomous status from a leading government college located in an aspirational district will jeopardize the largest goal of expanding higher education among socially and economically backward students of the district," said Mishra.
He said the state government is taking all the steps to sort out the issues of the college and improve its overall scenario within next few months. "It is requested to kindly reconsider the proposal of extending autonomous status in favour of Dhenkanal (Autonomous) College up to 2022-23," he added.