Jharkhand Chief Minister Raghubar Das on July 11 urged the Centre to provide funds setting up for five medical colleges in the state under the National Higher Education Mission.

Placing his request for it before Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank in New Delhi, Das also requested him to upgrade 13 degree colleges into new model degree colleges, an official release said here.

The chief minister informed the Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank that a proposal to open a sanskrit university in Deoghar will be brought in the forthcoming monsoon session of the state assembly.

The Union minister said the Centre will provide grants to the sanskrit university, the release said.

Informing the Union minister that a demand to open a tribal university in Jharkhand has been pending for years, Das requested him to start a branch of the Tribal University based in Madhya Pradesh's Amarkantak, in Jharkhand, to which Nishank gave consent.