Union finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Saturday laid the foundation stone of the Swahid Kanaklata Barua State University at Bholaguri in Gohpur in Assam’s
Biswanath district.
The institution, to be built on 731 bighas, will be India’s first technology-based vocational education and training (T-VET) university, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced.
Sitharaman lauded the Assam government for setting up a university at the very site where freedom fighter Kanaklata Barua laid down her life during the Quit India Movement, calling it a “deeply symbolic tribute” to Assam’s freedom struggle. Kanaklata was shot dead by British police while attempting to hoist the Tricolour at Gohpur police station on September 20, 1942.
The finance minister also praised the “remarkable progress” in Assam’s education sector under Sarma’s leadership, describing the new university as a “blend of history, innovation and empowerment”.
The BJP-led state government has sanctioned ₹500 crore for the first phase of the project, with another ₹500 crore to follow. The government also plans to establish academic collaborations with international institutions to offer dual-degree programmes. Sarma said discussions have already begun with two leading
Japanese universities.
Envisioned as a greenfield project, the university will eventually accommodate around 10,000 students. The public works department has been entrusted with developing a modern, eco-friendly campus designed to reflect the natural beauty of the area.
Sarma emphasised the historic significance of the Bholaguri Tea Estate, where the university is coming up. The site was where Rupkonwar Jyoti Prasad Agarwala, the pioneer of Assamese cinema, shot Joymati in 1935. Agarwala’s nationalist art and ideas, Sarma recalled, had inspired Sonitpur’s youth, including Kanaklata, to join the Mrityu Bahini, the suicide squad of the Quit India Movement.
“The same land that witnessed Assam’s fight for independence will now nurture a world-class institution of learning,” Sarma said. “It is a fitting tribute to the state’s freedom fighters and intellectual legacy.”
At the event, Sitharaman also handed over land allotment documents to three tea garden workers, marking the formal launch of the land patta distribution process for labourers of the Bholaguri Tea Estate.