BHUBANESWAR: Bhawanipatna Autonomous Government College was accorded unitary university status by the State Government on Wednesday. This will be the third university in the KBK region after Central University of Odisha (CUO) and Rajendra University to get unitary university status. The State Government had on Saturday accorded unitary university status to Rajendra College in Balangir.
The State Government notified upgrading Bhawanipatna Autonomous College as Kalahandi University by altering the territorial jurisdiction of Sambalpur University under the provisions of Odisha Universities Act. Being a non-affiliating university, it will offer new PG courses from the next academic session of 2019-20. Last month, Naveen had announced to upgrade Bhawanipatna Autonomous Government College to a unitary university
Locals have been demanding upgradation of the college to an affiliated university for Kalahandi and Nuapada ever since the Task Force on Higher Education made the recommendation to Higher Education department in 2009. Apparently, the KBK region had only CUO at Koraput and there was no State Government- run university in the region till Naveen announced to upgrade Rajendra Autonomous College in Balangir and Government Autonomous College in Bhawanipatna as unitary universities.