Ending all speculations, the Higher Education Department has brought out a notification for merger of the NAC (ST) Plus Two College, Sector-7 with the Rourkela Junior College, informed Raghunathpali MlA Subrat Tarai here on Sunday.
At a Press meet, he stated that after the decision of School and Mass Education Department to take over all the UlB-managed schools, the fate of this college was hanging in balance since 2009. As the UlB was not ready to manage the college further due to financial constraint, a joint high-level meeting between Higher Education and Urban Departments was held on February 23, 2013 on the instruction of the Chief Minister and decided to merge the college with the Rourkela Junior College.
Tarai said that after a financial settlement, the Rourkela Junior College would run all the three streams of Science, Arts and Commerce on the basis of the strength of both the colleges. Recruitment of teaching and nonteaching staffs has already started as there are no science faculties in the college. The strength of the faculties is as per the 128-student capacity which would gradually go up to 256 after the merger of the two colleges.
The present staffs of the NAC (ST) college would be reverted back to the Rourkela Municipality. Both the premises would be under the administrative purview of one principal, stated Tarai. Rourkela BJD president Ananad Mohanty and Raghunathpali city president Sudhir Sundar Ray were also present in the meeting.
With this decision, the suspense over the fate of the NAC (ST) college is not over, but the future of the students will be saved.