Rs 10,328 crore to develop infrastructure in elite institutes

With the Supreme Court removing roadblocks to OBC reservation in institutes of higher learning last month...

With the Supreme Court removing roadblocks to OBC reservation in institutes of higher learning last month, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs on Thursday approved Rs 10,328 crore for 54 per cent capacity expansion in the elite institutes to accommodate an additional intake of students from 2008-09 academic session. The fund is required to develop infrastructure in these institutions, as the Government has promised to accommodate the OBC quota in a manner that would not affect the intake of other category candidates.

8220;The fund for the capacity expansion will be incurred during the plan period. This support was required for the capacity expansion to accommodate an additional intake of candidates in the wake of OBC reservation, without affecting the intake of other category candidates,8221; said Finance Minister P Chidambaram, announcing the decision after the meeting of CCEA, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday.

Finance Minister informed that a little over Rs 4,000 crore of the total outlay will be part of the recurring expenditure, while the remaining part of the outlay would be spent on non-recurring expenses.

The financial approval is part of the plan envisaged by the Government last year itself, when it had planned to introduce the OBC quota by expanding the capacity of institution for additional intake without impacting the seats for the other candidates.

In fact, the Government, in its Budget last year, had made provisions for seed money to take up infrastructure development, but it could not proceed ahead as the matter was referred to the court.

The CCEA also approved proposal towards speeding up the land acquisition processes for setting up of atomic energy plants across the country.

The decision aims to empower the board of Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited for starting land acquisition process.

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The CCEA approved a proposal by the Agriculture Ministry to revise the Macro Management of Agriculture scheme, so as to avoid the overlap between this scheme and two other major schemes 8212; Rs 25,000 crore Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana and Rs 5,000 crore National Food Security Mission 8212; announced by the Government last year.