Agriculture, fisheries colleges to be set up in Odisha's Balangir & Sonepur
BHUBANESWAR/BALANGIR: The state government on Tuesday fulfilled the long-standing demand of Balangir and Sonepur by announcing to set up agriculture and fisheries colleges in the two western Odisha districts respectively.
The announcement was made by deputy chief minister KV Singh Deo at the state-level Krushak Samavesh held here to mark completion of the first year of the BJP government in Odisha. 'The Agriculture department has decided to set up a college of agriculture at Balangir and a college of fisheries in Sonepur,' said Singh Deo.
The proposed college at Balangir will be the fourth such institute under Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT). The other three colleges are in Bhubaneswar, Bhawanipatna and Chipilima. Currently, the state has only one college of fisheries at Rangeilunda near Berhampur in Ganjam district.
The announcement of an agriculture college came as a consolation for the people of Balangir who have been demanding for an Agriculture university as promised by the previous BJD government which had also made a token provision of `1 lakh in the Agriculture budget for 2014-15 and 2015-16.
The previous government had also started the process for establishment of a college of fisheries in Sonepur by constituting a committee headed by the dean of Agriculture, Chipilima to prepare a detailed project report. The district administration was also asked to identify a suitable location for the college which would require about 60 acre of land.
After identifying a suitable site, the then district collector had written to the Fisheries and Animal Resources department in 2023 to send a team to assess the suitability of the area for the proposed college. Even after repeated reminders, there was no response from the government.
The issue was raised in the Assembly during the budget session by Birmaharajpur MLA Raghunath Jagadala. To his utter dismay, Fisheries and Animal Resources Minister Gokulananda Mallik replied that his department has not received any proposal for a fisheries college in Sonepur.
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