Bhubaneswar: The Department of Higher Education will be having a dedicated Pension Cell and must maintain integrity and transparency in adherence with the 5T governance of the Government, Minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak instructed the department officials following a review on Saturday.
Nayak reviewed various activities of the department for more than two hours. A dedicated pension cell should start functioning immediately and the employees must receive their pension on the very day of retirement. All the pending pension cases must be cleared up within a specific timeline, he directed.
“All out efforts be made to fill up the vacancies of teaching and non-teaching staff in the colleges. He impressed upon the officers to create a database of all the faculty of the Government aided /GIA colleges through Software so that the vacancy can be monitored and rationalized,” the Minister stated.
He also reviewed the status of RUSA and World Bank funding, Student scholarships and others. A detailed discussion was made on further improvement in the standard of higher education and the development of educational Institutions in the state.
The provision/allotment of funds in different heads be utilised properly in due time . Measure to be taken to achieve higher NAAC ranking and participation in National Institutional Ranking Framework (NIRF) was also discussed.
While advising the officers of the department to maintain absolute integrity and transparency, Nayak has warned for any deviation to this will not be tolerated. He has asked the secretary of Higher Education to personally review the funds pending in various colleges and ensure its early utilization.
Among others, Arabinda Agrawal, Secretary of Higher Education, and other departmental Officers were present in the review meeting held in Lok Seva Bhawan.