Agriculture University In Odisha’s KBK Region: Has BJD Govt Forgotten Its Promise?

Bhubaneswar: Eight years after the BJD government in Odisha announced to establish the state’s second agriculture university in the undivided KBK region, it remains an empty promise.

The BJD made the promise not once but twice, before the 2014 and 2019 general elections. In these eight years, token budgetary provisions of Rs 1 lakh each was made in 2014-15 and 2015-16, TNIE reported.

Congress Legislature Party leader Narasingha Mishra, who has been raising the issue for a long time, told TNIE that the promised university was part of the Governor’s address in the first Assembly session after the 2014 elections.

“The government is widening the regional imbalance in education between the western and coastal regions of the state by not keeping its promise. Many promises made for the western region have remained unfulfilled,” Mishra told TNIE.

BJP MP from Kalahandi Basanta Panda, however, told the TNIE that there was no need to set up a separate university. The College of Agriculture in Bhawanipatna under Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) can be upgraded to a university, he said.

Kalahandi has emerged as a major rice- and cotton-producing district in the country. The Centre has also set up a Soyabean Research Centre in the region. There is also the Regional Research and Technology Transfer Station of ICAR at Bhawanipatna under OUAT, which undertakes need-based and location-specific research on soybean for hot and moist sub-humid climate of Odisha comprising of Kalahandi, Balangir and Koraput.