Our Govt will fight for central varsity: Naveen

The New Indian Express, June 20, 2007

BHUBANESWAR: Denial of a central university to the State by Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has come as a shock for people of Orissa.

The university will now be established at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh, the home state of HRD Minister Arjun Singh.

Describing this as another glaring instance of Centre’s indifference towards the State, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told newspersons that his government would fight for establishment of the university in Orissa.

Besides, the BJD would also organise State-wide demonstration on the issue. Underscoring the need for setting up the central university in KBK region, the Chief Minister said in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that this would immensely benefit the SC, ST and BPL families.

The demand goes back to 1991 when the then Chief Minister Biju Patnaik had moved the Centre for upgrading Utkal University to a central university.

Naveen Patnaik raised the issue again after taking over as the Chief Minister in 2000.

However, neither the previous NDA government nor the present UPA government considered the demand favourably.

The shifting of the central university has come at atime when the State has already been deprived by the Centre of having a National Institute of Science (NIS) or an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT).