Dear Honorable Chief Minister Mr. Patnaik,
It is ridiculous that a committee of the assembly headed by BJD legislator Pramila Mallick has suggested establishment of a second agriculture university preferably at Semiliguda in Koraput district [1].
Development of Koraput region is very important and the region needs to be considered sympathetically while establishing new institutions, at the same time it should not be in expense of another equally backward and deserving region like Kalahandi.
BJD party’s indulgent in dividing people of KBK and Western Odisha to milk out the situation is regrettable. People of this region have not yet forgotten the earlier decision to shift proposed Central University of Orissa from Kalahandi to Koraput.
In your letter to the Prime Minister [2] yourself had argued that Odisha has only one university for agriculture and the workload of this university has gone up substantially in recent years and the state needs one more university. We were glad that you had taken positive interest in this aspect.
In fact, the very much same state government had asked Orissa University of Agriculture and Technology (OUAT) to submit a feasibility report to upgrade the Agriculture College at Kalahandi to the second agriculture university in the state as per the suggestion of former union agriculture minister Sharad Pawar [3] where former union agriculture minister had pointed thatdespite being a backward area, Kalahandi has emerged as one of the top producers of rice, cotton and pulses in the state and required advanced technology to meet the growing demand in the coming years.
Odisha agriculture minister had also recently announced that second Agriculture University of the state would come up at Bhawanipatna [4].
What it the present justification of the committee to establish at Koraput instead of Kalahandi, which already has an Agriculture College and has greater potential in agriculture development?
Apart from Kalahandi being one of the largest producers of agricultural products and growing fast in agriculture activities, Kalahandi is located centrally to all the KBK districts and also equally suits the interest of Kandhamal, Boudh, Gajapati and backward Padampur sub-division of Bargarh district. If the second Agriculture University of the state is to serve the KBK region as a whole, I do not think location wise any other place is as best suited as Kalahandi.
This recommendation of the committee is only to create confusion and make the water muddy. The dividing and rule policy adopted by BJD is threatening integrity of people of KBK in particular and Western Odisha in general. Because of such divisive policy neither KBK head quarter nor WODC office is able come up in this region.
Currently, the state Govt. has also been establishing multiple numbers of Govt. medical colleges, but struggle of Sardar Raja Medical College at Jaring is well known. MCI has been continuously critical about this institution. Although Sardar Raja Medical College started taking students last year, the MCI has not approved this college to take student in the current academic year [5]. The success of this college in private hand has often raised questions and local people’s appeal to take out this college from private hand towards a full fledges Government medical college is falling on deaf ears.
Every time Kalahandi has given a clean sweep victory to your leadership in the election, your party had betrayed Kalahandi. Last time it happened during establishment of Central University of Orissa, and this time again it is being repeated for the Second Agriculture University in the state.
If the state Government and your leadership genuinely want to see Kalahandi as the number ONE district as claimed in multiple occasions during your speech in Kalahandi, then the proposed Indian Institute of Management in Odisha could be located in Kalahandi.
Your personal interference is required to stop this practice of dividing people of KBK region for the larger interest of the state.
Thank you and best regards
Digambara Patra
Reference
4. 4. Sambad, June 4, 2014 http://kalahandia.blogspot.
5. 5. http://odishasuntimes.com/
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