Odishatv Bureau

Bhubaneswar: The Odisha cabinet today cleared as many as nine proposals including abolishment of the pro-chancellor post in the Biju Patnaik University of Technology (BPUT).

Approving the revision to the BPUT Amendment Bill 2016, which had the provision for a pro-chancellor post to be occupied by the minister in-charge of technical education, the Cabinet today abolished the same. The Governor of Odisha had earlier returned the amendment bill taking exception to possible political interference in academic affairs of the varsity.

The Cabinet also approved a proposal by Tata Steel for utilisation of 1,735 acre land for development of a private industrial park at Gopalpur in Ganjam district.

Moreover, the Cabinet also gave its nod to a proposal to lease government land measuring 181.77 acres near Sambalpur in favour of Indian Institute of Management (IIM)-Sambalpur for construction of a permanent campus.

A proposal to provide free-of-cost land of about 881 acres in four districts to Union Ministry of Railways for construction of Daspalla-Bolangir segment of the crucial Khurda-Bolangir new broad gauge railway line project was also cleared in the cabinet meeting today.

The cabinet also approved mega drinking water projects worth Rs 316 crore under its BASUDHA scheme that would benefit 2.79 lakh people in three blocks - Jeypore, Boriguma and Kotpad - of Koraput district.

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