No airport; No varsity!

Tathya.in, Oct 16, 2009
Bhawanipatna:16/October/2009


Take the case of the students of the Central University of Orissa (CUO).

Most of them will not be able to recongnize Surabhi Banerjee.

Professor Banerjee is the first Vice Chancellor of the CUO at Koraput.

They are missing their VC as Koraput is not connected with an airport.

So Professor Banerjee, who is having her base at Kolkotta finds little time to visit CUO, thanks to air-infrastructure lag.

Visualizing these type of difficulaties, Centre insisted on ‘Airport’ criteria for establishing a Central University or a World Class University.

But leading educationist and Non Resident Oriya (NRO) Digambara Patra strongly feels that the State Government must insist on ‘deletion’ of ‘Airport’ criteria.

Professor Patra, said recently Central Government is establishing quality higher educational institutions like National University, also known as World Class Central University, in the state capitals/major cities across India.

And not a single one is being built in semi-urban rural region that are far away from state capital.

Main criteria given for identifying such locations is available infrastructure, it’s the airport.

Air-connectivity does not come automatically to any city unless it is commercially vaiable.

In developed countries like USA smaller cities do have airports becasue the average population can easily afford air travel due to economic reasons.

Large part of India, at least 80 % population, rarely or never depends on air travel because of economic reasons.

Unless new investment, industries and establishment come to a region, air connectivity is not commercially viable in India.

The failure of many other State and Central Universities located in capitals or major cities was never analyzed before putting restriction on establishing such national institution in semi-urban rural region far from state capital like Bhawanipatna.

Requirement of airport for such establishment in India could be game played by few following a model for their own convenience that are blindly getting support.

Out of 14 National Universities proposed across India 4 to 7 should be built in smaller town in rural India far aways from sate capital and should be left for the future generation to evaluate.

Kalahandi has more appeal for a National University not only for its infamous backwardness in the nation, available basic infrastructure, distance from state capital and rural mass migration in the nation but also due to its ideal location in Orissa.

By establishing such national University in those localities will reverse the migration process and control rural migration towards larger interest of the nation.

If requirment of airport is taken seriously and central Government decides to establish few more national university and IITs in near future, then Orissa would heavily lose many national institutions to other developed states.

Professor Patra has urged the State Government to take initiative to pursue the central Government not to consider airport as criteria and develop educational infrastructure by establishing National University in backward place like Bhawanipatna.

This step would not only bring equilibirated growth for whole Orissa but also reduce gorwing regionalism in the state, this is the right time to think and act in this direction from now.