Reasoning for K’handi varsity

Tathya.in, Oct 4, 2009
Bhawanipatna:4/October/2009

Kapil Sibal and Naveen Patnaik are close family friends.

Both the Union Minister of HRD and Orissa Chief Minister share equal wave length.

While Congress leader is worried about the lopsided development in Kalahandi, BJD Boss is equally concerned for this backward areas.

Still till date Naveen has not demanded any Centre of Higher Learning for Kalahandi.

Now at least the Chief Minister shun his shyness as a leading Kalahandia has done full fledged research to justify a National University or Central University for Kalahandi.

Digambara Patra, leading NRO, who teaches in American University of Beruit in Lebanon has come up with 15-point justifications for an University.

Coming under pressure, MHRD sanctioned 2 Central universities in J&K, however Kalahandi is demanding a central univeristy for last 2 decades.

Institutions like IIT, IIM 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 or large urban area.

Quality can still be maintained while establishing such institution in semi-urban areas as institutions in semi-urban rural region such as IIT Khragapur, IIT Roorkee, BITS Pilani, etc. have excelled in India.

Many economists agree investment while establishing such new and large institutions mainly goes to construction sectors which directly boost the local economy.

Such investment is always given to metro or large urban areas like Bhubaneswar of the country by totally ignoring small towns or semi-urban rural India like Bhawanipatna

Orissa’s state capital is already having or is proposed to have NISER, IIT, AIIMS etc which are of the same stature of national university, apart from railway medical college and many national level research institutions.

Among 14 locations selected for National University, Bhubaneswar is the only location where IIT, NISER (similar to IISER/IISc) and National University are coming in one place.

Yashpal committee has proposed IIT to be like National University, thus, no point of keeping two national universities in one location in Orissa rather encouraging the same in Bhawanipatna.

Besides that Anil Agrawal foundation is establishing a world class University with 15,000 crore investment in Puri, located within 70 km from Bhubaneswar.

Central Government is also encouraging National University through PPP mode.

It is very much possible to collaborate with Anil Agrawal Foundation and establish a National University in Kalahandi, the region where Vedanta group is mining by affecting the environment and displacing tribal.

It’s the moral duty of Vedanta group to establish a National University in a region where it is affecting people directly before establishing Rs.15,000 crore world class University in some other location for the purpose of philanthropy, said Dr.Patra.

In Orissa distance between Bhawanipatna and Koraput/ Sambalpur is much more compared to Bhubaneswar and Berhampur / Puri/ Cuttack /Balasore.

Regionally cities like Berhampur, Balasore etc are given preference on development as regional stations, but Bhawanipatna and Koraput /Sambalpur are put together when it comes to regional development.

Equal development of both Bhawanipatna and Koraput is very much important as regional stations to bring overall growth of KBK as well as Western and Southern Orissa.

Kalahandi, which is centrally located in KBK and Bhawanipatna is also the central point while including other tribal and backward region in Orissa such as Boudh, Kandhamal, Bargarh and Gajpati districts, thus, Bhawanipatna could serve better to the whole region than any other location.

Given the above justifications, a National University or a Central University should be estbliashed in Kalahandi, feel Sanjiv Kumar Karmee, another leading NRO, who teaches in the Delft University of Technology, Netherlands.