Orissa govt. handed over land to 120 year old college

Updated on: Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Fulfilling a long-standing demand of the students of Khallikote college here, the Orissa government handed over two acres of land belonging to the state owned Orissa State Transport Corporation (OSRTC) to the 120-year-old college.

States Revenue Minister S N Patro today handed over the Record of Right of the land to college principal S N Behera at a special function organised for the purpose in the campus.

"Long struggle by the students and whole-hearted support of the town people led to this success," local MLA R C Chyaupatnaik, Gopalpur MLA Pradip Panigrahi Congress leader Bikram Panda and CPM leader Ali Patnaik said.

The students''unions since seventies demanded that the land of the transport department be handed over to the college. The student agitation had reached its peak in 2009, when the state government decided to lease out the OSRTC land to a private retail instead of college.

Subsequently, the government reversed the decision and decided to give it in favour of the college, when leaders of almost all the political parties extended their support to the student agitation. It took over two years to implement the government decision to alienate the land from one department to another.

The land will help the college which faced space crunch for its expansion plans, the college principal said. He however said the college wanted 4.029 acres, entire portion of the OSRTC land,s expansion.

Orissa govt. handed over land to 120 year old college

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