ROURKELA: Demand for a Centrally-funded Tribal University in Sundargarh district has gained ground with the Congress staging demonstration in front of the office of Rourkela ADM over the issue on Thursday. Apart from the protest, Congress workers led by a tribal leader and former Birmitrapur MLA George Tirkey also sent a memorandum addressed to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik over their demands which included up-gradation of Rourkela Government (Autonomous) College (RGAC) into a State university.
Former Rourkela District Congress Committee (RDCC) president Biren Senapati said the State Government should approach the Centre for the establishment of a Tribal University. “Both the Central and State Governments collect huge revenue from Sundargarh district, but the tribal students continue to lag behind in higher education,” he said.
Senapati further said it is unfortunate that current Sundargarh MP Jual Oram, who was Union Tribal Affairs Minister from 1999 to 2004 and 2014 to 2019, did nothing to set up a Tribal University in his own district. Odisha Government has recommended the Ministry of Human resources Development (MHRD) to upgrade seven-degree colleges into universities but has left out Sundargarh district. Rourkela has got the status of a Smart City but the State Government continues to ignore the need for the development of higher education in the Steel City and rest of the district. Odisha Government should upgrade RGAC into full-fledged university to save the students of various colleges in Sundargarh from the pain of travelling 180 km to Sambalpur University., he said.
Incidentally, there has been a long-standing demand to upgrade the RGAC into a unitary university. The Congress, however, wants it to be made a State university. Senapati said RGAC currently has 35 acre of land and runs 17 departments in degree courses and three MPhil programmes. The State Government should allow additional land to make it a full-fledged university,” he added.