The State Government has decided to construct houses for faculty and staff of 10 Government colleges in the tribal dominated and insurgency infested Bastar division. The Government has provided administrative approval for Rs7.32 crore for construction of a total of 100 houses for four categories of employees for the colleges. The houses will be constructed in Sukma, Narayanpur, Dantewada, Bijapur,Antagarh districts.
Five new residential colleges would be opened in five cities of the State announced State Higher Education Minister Prem Prakash Pandey while inaugurating the building of Government Polytechnic Institute in Mahasamund last month. “The State Government has come up with a scheme for promoting higher education and resources for youth in Chhattisgarh. 50 per cent of seats in these colleges will be reserved for students from rural background,” he said.
The Minister also administered oath to student union of the Polytechnic Institute. Notably, the institute building has been completed at a cost of Rs9.97 crore. On an experimental basis, for the first time , the Chhattisgarh Government is going to establish residential colleges wherein all kind of facilities will be available for students, he said. “We are paying special attention on higher education and very soon vacant posts of 966 assistant professors and 664 lecturers in Polytechnic colleges will be filled,” Pandey said, adding, the process for filling these posts has already been started.
He informed that for providing employment oriented education to youths in all districts, State livelihood colleges have been established. Under this scheme, 25 colleges are functioning and 697 different trades have been identified where less educated youths will be provided training in their favourite trade. Moreover, on February 24 this year, the government announced that the Chhattisgarh Housing Board (CGHB) will construct houses for government employees in 146 block and nine new district headquarters at a project cost of Rs1,000 crore.
The decision comes in wake of Chief Minister Raman Singh’s directions to the Revenue Department to take prompt action for solving the problem of housing for the Government employees in various district and block headquarters. According to officials, Revenue Minister Prem Prakash Pandey told that his Department has issued circular to all the district collectors in this regard. In the circular it has been stated that the land should be allotted to CGHB as per demand and equivalent to the cost of construction of houses. Earlier, the land was allotted by an Inter-departmental Committee.
However, according to the State government's decision, the allotment of land will now be done by a Committee of senior Secretaries, officials said. The circular states that the Government land will be selected for construction of residences for Government officials and employees at the headquarters of nine new districts formed in 2012 including Balod, Bemetara, Gariaband, Balrampur-Ramanujganj, Surajpur, Mungeli, Kondagaon, Sukma and Baloda Bazar-Bhatapara besides all 146 block headquarters of the State, officials said. The circular also states that the land identified will remain in the name of the Government and will be provided to CGHB only for construction of houses.