GUWAHATI, July 5 � With an aim at conserving college campuses that are over 100 years old, the University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted �heritage� status to 19 institutions across the country, including the historic Cotton College here, and has approved financial assistance for their improvement and upgrade.
The Commission had invited proposals from colleges for the heritage tag under the Heritage College Scheme and of the 60 proposals it received, it approved granting of the status to 19 colleges, informed Cotton College Students� Union Society general secretary Deepjyoti Das while talking to The Assam Tribune.
Varied financial assistance has been approved to these colleges by the UGC that will be used for conservation work of the campus and for specialised courses related to heritage.
The colleges which have been granted the �heritage� status include St Xavier�s College, Mumbai; CMS College, Kottayam; St Joseph College, Trichy; Khalsa College, Amritsar; St Bede�s College, Shimla; Christ Church College, Kanpur; Old Agra College, Agra; Meerut College, Meerut and Langat Singh College in Bihar�s Muzaffarpur.
Besides Cotton College, the other institutions that have figured in the list are Government Brennan College, Kerala; University College in Mangalore, Midnapore College in West Bengal, Government Medical Science in Jabalpur, Deccan Education Society�s Fergusson College in Pune, Hislop College in Nagpur, Government Gandhi Memorial Science College in Jammu, Kanya Mahavidyalya in Jalandhar and St Xavier�s College in Kolkata.
Incidentally, Cotton College of Guwahati has received the maximum grant of Rs 4.35 crore for conservation of its heritage building. The UGC will also examine 160 fresh proposals, which have been sent by various colleges across the country.
The idea of granting the heritage tags was mooted by the Centre in 2013 to enable the universities to receive grants worth Rs 8-10 crore per annum from the government.
