Calcutta, Aug. 10: The government will set up four colleges in Muslim-dominated pockets ahead of next year’s Assembly elections, the move coming at a time the ruling Left’s poll debacles have been partly blamed on the community’s alienation.

Never before in the Left’s 33-year reign have so many colleges been established in one go. “This is first time that the government will be opening four colleges at one time,” said Dipak Bhattacharya, member secretary of the West Bengal Council of Higher Education, which frames academic policies.

Two of the colleges will be set up in Murshidabad’s Beldanga I and Domkol. The rest will come up in South 24-Parganas — one in Kulpi and another at a site in the same district to be finalised later, a source said. The CPM had performed poorly in the 2009 Lok Sabha elections in both districts.

“The government aims to start the colleges from the academic session starting July 2011. The preparations for completing the project within this date have begun,” said Bhattacharya.

All the four colleges will be run directly by the state higher education department. They will join the 37 existing institutions whose administrative affairs such as teachers’ salaries and day-to-day governance are overseen by the government.

The plan to set up the four colleges follows a recent central survey that revealed Murshidabad and South 24-Parganas have a high concentration of Muslim population and are educationally backward.

More than 25 per cent of the population in the two districts are Muslims. The gross enrolment ratio — the percentage of population between the age group of 18 and 24 years taking up college and university education — in both districts is 6.3 per cent. The national figure varies from 10.34 per cent to 12 per cent.

“Considering the statistics, it is clear that the government wants to open the new colleges with an aim to provide better higher education facilities to the two districts and buy minority votes,” said a teacher of a Murshidabad college.

However, a source close to the Left Front’s education cell claimed the move had nothing to do with the elections and that students from general categories would also be admitted to the new colleges. The plan is to offer conventional subjects initially. Later, courses in emerging areas and vocational streams will be introduced.

According to the front source, the choice of Murshidabad and South 24-Parganas was also prompted by a central scheme rule that sets two conditions for one-time grants to state governments to set up new colleges.

The first is that the gross enrolment ratio in the districts where the college has been planned should be lower than the national average. The second is that the area should have a high concentration of minorities. Murshidabad and South 24-Parganas meet both conditions.

“We have chosen Murshidabad and South 24-Parganas as there is a scarcity of colleges in the two districts and they match the conditions set by the Centre for sponsoring one-time grants,” the government source said.

The Centre has indicated it is ready give Rs 10 crore each to the four proposed colleges, the source added.

The Union HRD ministry has sought details of the college plan. “The funds will be released as soon as the state completes formalities,” a ministry source said. The central grant, however, cannot be used to buy land.