A Re.1- crore grant announced by the State government to Mangalore University to set up a Jain Vidya Peetha (a chair on Jain studies) a year ago has remained a dream even as the government announced an equal amount to set up a study chair after a Jain poet this year.
It was the then Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda who announced the grant to the university for setting up the chair while presenting the Budget for 2012-13.
An official of the university who did not want to be quoted said the grant had not been released though the university drafted a statute relating to the establishment of the chair.
This statute approved by the decision-making bodies of the university was now before the government awaiting its approval. The preamble of the draft statute said it was drafted after the government in its July 2, 2012, letter asked the university to prepare a statute for setting up the chair.
One of the objectives of setting up the chair included bringing out the rich epigraphical and literary sources that go into the making of Jain history.
