Calcutta: The state government wants every state-aided college to beautify its campus, carrying out repairs and getting a paint job done in three months.

The announcement has left several colleges speculating whether their buildings will have to be painted in chief minister Mamata Banerjee's favourite blue-and-white colour scheme.

The colour of the paint is usually decided on by the building committee of the college. But heads of several colleges in need of a fresh coat of paint told Metro that the governing bodies - mostly comprising pro-Trinamul members - had suggested sticking to the blue-and-white combination.

"We won't be surprised if we have to paint all buildings on our campus blue and white. The colour of our buildings keeps changing every time we paint them afresh. Our building committee decides the colour combination. But as the situation stands now we may have to change the colour of all buildings to blue-and-white," said the principal of college in central Calcutta.

The principal of another college said the authorities had contacted the higher education department officials at Bikash Bhavan to find out if the college could choose the colour scheme or stick to the blue-and white combination.

"The funds for painting the buildings are provided by the government so it is quite possible that we will be asked to follow the government's colour scheme as well," he said.

Education minister Partha Chatterjee did not say anything about a preferred colour code when he announced the government's decision to beautify educational institutions at a gathering of college principals.

"A government notification will soon be issued specifying the details of what the colleges will have to do," a source in the higher education department said.

Several colleges in the districts have already painted their buildings blue and white, over the last couple of years, in preparation for National Assessment and accreditation Council (NAAC) inspection.

In Calcutta, Jadavpur University was the first institute to adopt the blue-and-white combination in 2014 during Abhijit Chakrabarti tenure as vice-chancellor.