Kochi: The aided colleges in the state are set to get the largesse of all times from Union Ministry of HRD and the state government with each college getting Rs 2 crore for infrastructure development under Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA)-II.
This was finalised after the discussions Union HRD minister top officials had with state hig-her education Minister K.T. Jaleel and senior officials of the Higher Education Department the other day in the state capital.
Despite the financial crunch the state is facing on account of the August floods, the state government has decided to chip in with Rs 40 lakh each as state share out of the Rs 2 crore. The Central government will contribute Rs 1.20 crore for the purpose while the rest will be contribution of the institutions. A total of 105 aided colleges will benefit from the scheme. The money will be released in three instalments till the year 2020.
Five autonomous colleges which have a NAAC grade of above 3.51 will get Rs 5 crore each. These are Rajagiri College of Social Sciences, Kochi, Marian Colle-ge, Kuttikkanam, MA College, Kothamangalam, Farooq College, Kozhikode and St Joseph’s College, Devagiri. The amount will have to be spent on infrastructure development and quality research. The Centre will give Rs 3 crore of it while the rest will be the share of the institution and the state. In RUSA-I only government institutions had got Union MHRD funding.
Apart from these, it was decided that a sum of Rs 12 crore will be spent to set up a model degree college at Wayanad in 60:40 Central-state share. Under RUSA-II, 10 government colleges will get Rs 2 cr each while Cochin University of Science and Technology and MG University will get Rs 50 crore each on the back of their sterling performance and NAAC rating.
