Bhubaneswar, Dec 3: Chief Secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra directed the collectors of all districts to operationalise District College Development Facilitation Centers (DCDFCs) for addressing the problems (requiring administrative support) encountered by the colleges.  

He gave this direction over video conferencing held from SLokseba Bhawan wherein Principal Secretary Higher Education Saswat Mishra outlined the issues for discussion. 

Taking a district-wise review of DCDFCs, Mahapatra said, “Development of the colleges is a priority agenda of the Government; and, Collectors must be directly involved in the process”.

Adding to the Chief Secretary, Principal Secretary Mishra said, “Direct involvement of the Collectors and District administration would resolve many ground-level issues more easily as Government has given clear cut guidelines on all important matters”.  

 Further, the Chief Secretary directed the collectors to look into the major issues like “settlement of land in name of the colleges, separation of plus two wing from the degree colleges, expeditious implementation of the developmental projects in the colleges, proper utilisation of the Government money given under different schemes, and development of academic-eco system in the campus.  

  Joining the discussion, Development Commissioner, Pardeep Kumar Jena directed the collectors to use the grants received from different sources in the most judicious way so that money spent yields the maximum value for qualitative improvement of the institutions.

Principal Secretary Mishra apprised that DCDFCs would be chaired by the Collector of the respective district, and the Regional Director/Deputy Director of the Regional Directorate of Education would function as the member-convener. The Principals of all Government and aided degree colleges, district level officers of works, rural development, public health and general electricity departments would be members of the Committee. Collector may nominate any other member as per necessity from time to time.  The ADM would function as Member Coordinator.

The Chief Secretary asked the Collectors to convene round wise meeting with different colleges for having a first-hand assessment of their problems and accordingly prioritize those as per the guidelines issued by the Higher Education department.

 The Collectors of all districts appraised the present infrastructural and other facilities of the colleges in their respective districts.