Educationist for National University in Kalahandi

The Pioneer, Oct 24, 2009

Pioneer News Service | Bhubaneswar

Eminent educationist and Oriya NRI Dr Digambara Patra has requested Union Minister of Human Resource Development Kapil Sibal to establish the proposed National University or a New Central University in Kalahandi as it was done for Jammu and Kashmir.

Patra, who is an assistant professor, department of chemistry, American University of Beirut has also asked Sibal to establish the National University, which is proposed to be set up in Bhubaneswar and in Bhawanipatna as it is only 200 km from Raipur airport with many social and local advantages in the region just like the case for the proposed National University in Mysore.

Patra has also sent copies of the letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik.

Patra rued that recently both Jammu and Kashmir got two Central Universities due to public protest whereas similar demand in Kalahandi for a Central or National University was undermined after establishing Central University at Koraput. Struggle for a Central or National University in Kalahandi has been since the last two decades and many memoranda and protest letters have been sent in this regard to both Central and State Government, he informed.

Bhubaneswar already has NISER, IIT, AIIMS, Vedanta University, etc which are of the same stature as the National University, apart from the proposed railway medical college and many national level research institutions. Unfortunately, not a single Central Government-sponsored institution that were recently proposed in Orissa like IIT, NISER, AIIMS, Central University, IIIT and medical colleges by the Ministry of Coal and Defence Department is located in Western Orissa, he regretted. Even the State Government is reluctant to support an Indira Gandhi National Tribal University off-campus in Kalahandi, he rued further.

Institutions like IITs, IIMs and National Universities should be distributed not only among various States but also based on rural and urban areas which are far away from State capital, he observed.

Thus for the larger interest of the State four to seven out of proposed 14 National Universities should go to such locations like Bhawanipatna of Kalahandi to bring equal distribution of such institutions across rural and urban regions, he justified.

Many economists agreed investment while establishing such new and large institutions mainly goes to construction sectors directly boosting the local economy. Such investment is always given to State capitals of the country and small towns or semi-urban rural India or backward regions which are far away from the State capital are totally ignored, he pointed out in his letter.