Assam Cabinet clears Rs 108 crore for free college admissions

The Assam Cabinet on Tuesday approved Rs 108.81 crore to repay colleges that admitted first-year undergraduate students without charging admission fees this academic year, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said after the meeting at Lok Sewa Bhawan in Dispur.

The money is meant for colleges taking part in the state's Pragyan Bharati scheme, under which eligible students do not pay admission fees. More than 1.5 lakh first-year undergraduates are covered for 2026-27, according to IANS, as carried by The Shillong Times.

Sarma explained that because students are not paying, the government gives colleges an equivalent amount so that their day-to-day running is not hit. The funds will be transferred directly to the colleges against the fee waivers they have given, The Assam Tribune quoted him as saying.

Higher payout for families of SSA staff

The Cabinet raised the one-time ex-gratia paid to the families of Samagra Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) teachers and officials who die while in service from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 7.5 lakh, a 50 per cent increase.

IIT Guwahati to help design learning kits

Instead of buying teaching-learning material (TLM) from contractors through tenders, the state will now develop it with the Research Park at the Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati. The first kits are for Classes I and II in government schools under Samagra Shiksha and focus on foundational literacy and numeracy.

Sarma said working with IIT Guwahati would help the department understand what students actually need and which materials make learning more effective. The government says the change is also meant to reform the way such material has been procured.

Sanskrit college to merge with Nalbari university

The Cabinet approved merging Krishna Kanta Handiqui Sanskrit College in Guwahati with Kumar Bhaskar Varma Sanskrit and Ancient Studies University in Nalbari. Sarma said the Guwahati college has only about 65 students, far fewer than the university.

Its facilities will move to Nalbari, and its teachers will be absorbed into the university as professors. The merged institution will get a new name, which the Cabinet will decide.

Rs 200 crore for Ayushman Assam

The Cabinet also cleared Rs 200 crore for the Ayushman Assam health scheme. Sarma said the Centre's Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat scheme covers about 30 lakh families in Assam, while the state government pays for another 40 lakh families on its own through Ayushman Assam.

What it means

For students, the college fee decision does not change anything at the counter: admission remains free for those who qualify. What it does is cover the fees colleges would otherwise have collected, so that their functioning is not affected. The SSA ex-gratia increase applies to families of teachers and officials working under the centrally sponsored school education programme.

The official notifications for each decision are expected to follow from the departments concerned.