Updated on: Monday, January 21, 2013
The Uttar Pradesh government has identified land for setting up a central women's university in Rae Bareli, parliamentary constituency of Congress president Sonia Gandhi.
State Special Secretary of Higher Education, Anita Mishra, said that Union HRD Ministry has sought consent from the state government to provide 500-acre land near the city in Rae Bareli.
She said that Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on January 14 had informed the higher education department of the union ministry about in principle consent of the state.
The land has been identified in Lalganj tehsil of the district, she said. During her visit in July last year, the UPA chairperson had said that Rae Bareli being the 'karmbhoomi' of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, it was her wish that a girls degree college be built in her memory.
"It was my wish that a women's degree college should be constructed in the name of Indira Gandhi as Rae Bareli was her karmbhoomi. This is so that daughters here can get higher education," she had said.
Sonia had said that Ministry of Human Resource Development had taken an initiative to set up a degree college. "State government has also shown positive stand in giving land. As soon as land is provided, necessary steps would be taken immediately and the college will be named after Indira Gandhi," she had said.