College seeks state funds to preserve old building

Khallikote Autonomous College in Odisha's Ganjam district, the lead institution of Khallikote Cluster University, has sought Rs 13 crore from the state government to preserve its oldest building as a heritage structure.
"The two-storey building had been declared unsafe by engineers and is now unutilised. We want to make it seven storeys tall," said the cluster university's vice-chancellor, Manmath Padhy.
"The 13 crore amount will be devoted to the construction of a proposed building," said university registrar Radhanath Rath.
The building belongs to one of the premier educational institutions in the state and has had a significant contribution in the spread of higher education in south Odisha in its 160-year-old history.

"It deserves to be a heritage building and I will try to secure government approval for construction on the structure," said MLA Ramesh Chandra Chyau Patnaik, president of the executive committee of the college.
Padhy, who is a historian, said the college had begun as a zilla school in 1856 and attained the status of an intermediate college called Union College.

When Harihar Mardaraj, the king of the erstwhile Khallikote estate, donated a sizeable amount of money towards the functioning of the institution, it was renamed Khallikote College on August 16, 1893.
In 1910, Madan Mohan Singh Deo, the king of the Dharakote estate had donated Rs 10,000 for construction and equipment for the science laboratory.

The three-storied building was constructed in 1979, while the Centenary building and life science block with four galleries were added to the complex in 1982.