Telangana Budget: Rs 500 crore for basic amenities in State universities

The Finance Minister proposed Rs.100 crore each for the Telangana Mahila Viswavidyalayam (Women's University) and Forest College.

Hyderabad: The State universities have received a major fillip in the budget with the State government proposing Rs.500 crore for providing basic amenities.

Presenting the State budget 2023-24 in the Legislative Assembly here on Monday, Finance Minister T Harish Rao said an amount of Rs.500 crore was proposed for basic amenities such as modernization of hostels and construction of new buildings in the universities across the State. This was the first time in the history of the State that such a big allocation is being made, he said.

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The Finance Minister proposed Rs.100 crore each for the Telangana Mahila Viswavidyalayam (Women’s University) and Forest College. In total, an amount of Rs.19,093 crore was proposed for the Education department in the budget for 2023-24. For scholarships and diet of the students, the government has allocated 5,609 crore for 2023-24 as against 4,690 in the last financial year.

Recalling that there were only 293 residential institutions with 1.31 lakh students and insufficient facilities at the time of State formation, he said soon after the formation of Telangana, Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao took firm steps for the development of residential educational institutions.

Today the number of residential educational institutions stands at 1,002 imparting quality free education in English medium to 5,59,000 students, he said.

The allocation of grants for residential schools which was Rs.784 crore in the initial years of the formation of the State has been substantially increased to Rs.3,400 crore in 2022-23, he said, adding that this demonstrated the commitment of Telangana government to provide quality education to the children from the economically weaker sections.

Stating that 14 new polytechnic colleges were established in the last eight and a half years, Harish Rao said from the academic year 2023-24, polytechnic colleges will be established at Maheshwaram in Ranga Reddy district and at Manuguru in Bhadradri Kothagudem district.

The Minister mentioned that the two new engineering colleges under the jurisdiction of the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University (JNTU)-Hyderabad have already commenced functioning and said colleges at Mahabubnagar and Kothagudem would begin operating shortly.

Keeping in view the development of the pharma sector in Telangana, University College of Pharmaceutical Sciences affiliated to JNTU-Hyderabad has been established in Sultanpur, he added.