BHUBANESWAR: Petroleum minister Dharmendra Pradhan has contributed one year's salary for development of his alma-mater Utkal University. He handed over the cheque to the Chancellor of Universities and Odisha Governor Prof Ganeshi Lal on Thursday. The Governor congratulated Pradhan for the gesture.
The Union Minister had made an assurance in this regard during the Platinum Jubilee celebration of the State's premier university in November 2019. He had then advocated for the formation of a corpus fund by the alumni association which could be used for academic and infrastructure development of the university.
While the Utkal alumni association was registered the same year, the corpus fund has not been set up yet. Sources said a bank account of the association was opened six months back in which the registration fees of alumni for joining the association is being deposited.
While the association needs to establish the corpus fund and sign an MoU with the Utkal University to use the money for the institution's development, this has not been done so far as adequate funds could not be collected for the purpose.
Former Odisha chief secretary Bijay Kumar Patnaik, a member of the association, said the corpus fund will now be formed and the Union Minister's donation will be deposited in it. Meanwhile, the university held its pre-convocation award-giving ceremony ahead of the convocation on April 3 which will be graced by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu.
Director of NISER Prof Sudhakar Panda attended the ceremony as the chief guest and gave away two DLitts, 127 PhDs and 100 gold medals for the 2018-19 academic session. University VC Sabita Acharya informed that the pre-convocation event was organised as convocation could not be held last year due to the Covid outbreak.
Speaking on the occasion, Prof Panda urged the students to cultivate the courage to do the right thing and develop an analytical mindset. “A degree should not be treated as a paper to land a job and secure a handsome salary. Knowledge should be the driving force at all times”, he said.