Rs 740 crore approved for Central University campus

Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, March 13

The Union Ministry for Finance has approved Rs 740.79 crore for Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) campuses.

Union Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Thakur, while talking to The Tribune, thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for approving the amount for the campus.

Anurag said, “Since 2010, I have been committed towards providing educational facilities to students and pursued the establishment of CUHP in Himachal Pradesh. Students will get the world-class higher education facilities without leaving the state.”

As much as Rs 740.70 crore has been approved for the CUHP campuses at Dehra, which is part of Hamirpur constituency, and Dharamsala in Kangra.

The ministry has approved Rs 512.37 crore as non-recurring expenditure and Rs 210.55 crore as recurring expenditure. This also includes Rs 17.87 crore expenditure made till 2019-20. “We are seeing how the double engine of central and state governments in the education sector is pushing Himachal to a new frontier to meet the demands of the fourth industrial revolution,” he said.

Though the amount has been sanctioned, the allotment of land for the CUHP in Dharamsala is pending. The environment clearance for transfer of about 600-kanal forest land at Jadrangal in Kangra district is also pending.

In Dehra, the forest clearance for about 300 kanal, allotted to the CUHP, has been received by the state government. The land is still to be transferred in the name of the university.