KOCHI: Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday announced a one-time special grant of Rs 100 crore to Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University situated at Pookot in Wayanad.
“The grant is meant to develop eight research schools in the Veterinary College at Mannuthy, Veterinary College at Pookot, and Dairy Science College at Mannuthy,” Vice-Chancellor B Ashok said.
These schools will offer innovative post-graduate and research courses.
He said the main schools proposed are the School of Animal Production Biotechnology, Bio-energy and Farm Waste Management, Zoonoses and Public Health, Pathobiological Sciences and Ethno Pharmacology, New Media and Research, Avian Sciences, and Instrumentation and Engineering.
With the development of new teaching and research facility the university will be in the frontier of research and hopes to enroll around 2,000 students to various courses.
According to officials, the research schools will offer MSc programmes for general science and technology graduates in applied biochemistry and quality management in dairy processing, diploma programmes in food processing, public health management, infectious diseases, ethno-veterinary medicine, pharmacological IPR, applied animal science, poultry science, veterinary laboratory techniques, and veterinary anesthesiology.
Apart from the Rs 17 crore to be spent on the schools, Rs 60 crore will be spent on the infrastructure development of the 55-year-old Mannuthy Veterinary and Dairy Science College campus.
“A total of Rs 72 crore shall be spent on infrastructure and Rs 28 crore on state-of-the-art diagnostic equipment etc,” the Vice-Chancellor said. “With the development of new teaching and research facility, the university will be in the frontier of research and hopes to enroll about 2,000 students in new diploma, graduate and post-graduate courses,” he said.
The university, incorporated in June last year, also bagged Rs 45 crore from NABARD RIDF for its other projects and sports infrastructure development.
The university which was created out of Kerala Agricultural University has been funded to the tune of Rs 165 crore to be spent on the next three to four years.