Samajwadi Party (SP) State president Rabi Behera has urged Union Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javedkar to give Central university status to the Utkal University which will hold its
Platinum Jubilee on November 27 next by completing 75 years of its existence.
In a letter to Javedkar, who will be coming to Odisha on a three-day visit, Behera requested to consider the demand for converting the 17th oldest university of the country to a Central University.
Behera said that the premier university of the State was established on November 27, 1943 to fulfill the hope and aspiration of the people of Odisha as a separate State and in all these years it has became the medium of development and tool to accelerate socio-economic progress of Odisha. Many of its old students, including the present Union Petroleum and Skill Development Minister Dharmendra Pradhan have earned name and fame for the State as well as for the country, he stated.