Education minister P.K. Shahi on Tuesday alleged that though the state government wanted to grant autonomy to 47 constituent colleges, the initiative was not gathering steam because of interference from Raj Bhavan.

Shahi claimed the Raj Bhavan did not want the state’s colleges to become autonomous. He was speaking at a meeting convened by the education department on according 47 constituent colleges and two government colleges the centre of excellence tag.

Principals of all the 49 colleges, education department principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha, higher education director Sitaram Singh and National Assessment and Accreditation Council (Naac) director Hassan Annegowda Ranganath attended the meeting.

Shahi said that the state government wants to improve higher education but lack of resources prevented it from making much headway. He said: “Bihar spends around 14 per cent of the total budgetary allocation on higher education, which is a very huge amount, but in spite of that not much has been achieved in the field of college education.”

Sinha urged the college principals to submit their detailed project report (DPR) according to the format of Naac to the education department by September so that the colleges can be upgraded into centres of excellence. Sinha said: “The college principals should prepare the DPR according to the Naac guidelines uploaded on its website.”

The Naac director said: “There are seven criteria on which a college is assessed by Naac team, including students’ enrolment and profile, teaching or learning process and infrastructure facilities.”