Keeping in view the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh and the promise made by AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi, the government is likely to clear a proposal to set up a Central Agriculture University in Jhansi of Bundelkhand region of the state.
Already a special package of more than `7,000 crore was approved by the Centre for Budelkhand region comprising districts of Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. If the agriculture university proposal is cleared by the Union Cabinet at its meeting on Thursday, it will become another talking point for the Congress in the election campaign.
Informing this, sources in the government said, “For long the state government obstructed setting up of the university, as the land was not available. But now since the issue has been sorted out, the proposal is high on agenda of the Union Cabinet, which will be chaired by PM Manmohan Singh.”
Since the state government failed to provide land for the university, it has now been decided to establish it in Jhansi on the land of Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute, which owned by Central agency — the Indian Council of Agriculture Research, sources informed adding that the cost of project would be around `823 crore.
Meanwhile, the Union Cabinet is also likely to clear a proposal to set up 2,500 model schools for secondary and higher secondary levels under public-private partnership (PPP) mode. Sources said, “Such schools would be set up under PPP mode in those blocks, which are not considered to be educationally backward under the scheme for setting up of 6,000 model schools at block level, as benchmark of excellence.”
As part of the modalities, the private investor will get land free-of-cost from the state government and then for construction of building Centre and the private entities will invest 50:50. The private management of the school will follow either CBSE or state board pattern and will charge only to meet the operational cost, which will be determined at a later stage, sources informed.