Odisha Colleges To Have Hostels For Marginalised Students Under PM-YASASVI

Bhubaneswar: Hard pressed to provide hostel accommodation, mainly to students from rural areas and marginalised sections, at least ten colleges in Odisha are now set to get new hostel facilities under the Prime Minister’s Young Achievers Scholarship Award Scheme for Vibrant India (PM YASASVI).

The centrally-sponsored PM YASASVI aims at enabling students from socially and educationally backward classes to study in better colleges, both in technical and general streams, in urban areas.

The scheme has been formulated for award of scholarships to Other Backward Class (OBC), Economically Backward Class (EBC) and Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes De-Notified Tribe (DNT) students, annual income of whose parents or guardians is not more than Rs 2.5 lakh.

To draw benefits from the scheme, Odisha’s Higher Education department has sent a list of ten colleges which are in need of additional hostels to accommodate many students from the marginalised category, to the ST and SC Development department, reports said.

The proposed hostels will mainly focus on providing accommodation to students belonging to OBC category, they said, several colleges need new hostel facilities for girl students.

The list includes Rajdhani College in Bhubaneswar, SCS College in Puri, Vikram Dev  College, Jeypore, Government College at Rourkela, Dharani Dhar College at Keonjhar, Niranjan Women’s College (Aska), Government Women’s College at Dhenkanal, Panchayat Degree College at Bargarh, Netaji Subash Bose College in Sambalpur and Kuntala Kumari Sabat Women’s College in Balasore.

As number of students taking admissions had increased over the years, the colleges need hostels of 100 to 300 seats capacity, sources said, adding that the Government is likely to spend Rs three lakh per hostel seat under the scheme.

The Centre will bear 60 per cent of the cost of construction of boys’ hostels and the rest will be spent by the state. For girls’ hostels, the Centre will provide 90 per cent financial assistance to the state government, they said.

The college concerned will have to provide land free of cost on its campus for the construction of new hostel building. The college will provide hostel seats to new OBC students strictly in accordance with the sanction order, sources added.