Odisha HRD

16 Writeup

• 1. Bidya  |  December 19th, 2008 at 6:41 pm

  Why do you think shifting of cental university from Koraput to kalahandi is so important? Or else, Kalihandi people are more deserving candidates.. I’m reading these stuffs for quite some time.. People are comparing Koraput and Kalahandi !!! I think, the central university in Koraput will bring more balance to the distribution of educational institutes… you can argue..I’m not getting into debates Koraput or kalahandi.. The most imporant thing is, it is in KBK district… Central university in Koraput doesn’t mean, people of kalahandi can’t take admision here.. In fact, this is an Opportunity for kalahandi people to make the best out of it… I think, you should be careful from next time posting these anti koraput campaign…

• 2. Digambara Patra  |  December 19th, 2008 at 7:13 pm

  Dear Prof Baral,
  It is appreciable. But now I realize that Biju Patnaik name may go well with Central UPA Govt. May be Rajiv Gandhi would be better as Gandhi family has been close associate with Kalahandi since generations and he is the pioneer of computer and telecom revolution in India
  With best regards
  Digambara

• 3. Chitta Baral  |  December 19th, 2008 at 8:41 pm

  This is not anti-Koraput campaign.

  This is encouraging Kalahandi people to see the writing in the wall and be realistic in going about their aspirations.

  ps- I am against any shifting of locations.

  pps- I am not from Kalahandi. I have just watched their struggle for getting higher education institutions to their state and am trying to suggest what might help them, without harming other districts.

• 4. Chitta Baral  |  December 19th, 2008 at 8:44 pm

  SLIET and ABA GKC IET are named after local leaders. Hence the suggestion of BPIET. Any other leader from Orissa, especially some one related to Kalahandi, is fine.

• 5. Digambara  |  December 20th, 2008 at 2:26 am

  Dear Bidya,
  What you say may be a negociating point.
  To be honest I am from Kalahandi and has been observing struggle for a central University in Kalahandi since 1988, from my college days.

  It hurts when your own place is marginalized due to political reasons. Orissa CM did promise to a delegation from Kalahandi. I do not need to repeat our NISER (NIS) struggle, some did argue that establishing NIS/IISER in Kolakata or BBSR does not make much difference. But we did continue to fight for Orissa. That what makes the difference. There are many political manipulations under the table, which needs to be exposed through all of us.

  You are looking at Orissa level but I am looking at those people who are being repeatedly marginalized for their demand. Nothing more than that.

  Distance between Koraput and Bhawanipatna is above 200 km by NH201
  Distance between Bhubaneswar and Berhampur is 180 km by NH5.

  I do not think it is wrong to have a comparative study, people should come up with data so that other can have a clear view. In fact if you can come with data and justification it will help us to clarify. In case you have time and have gone through my comparison please give your critical comments, I will be happy to learn if I have something wrong.

  Often people do think Balangir, Kalahandi and Koraput is one region due to low population, backwardness and ignorance. Practically, location wise its like saying Balasore, Cuttack and Berhampur but in other parts hardly people do think about this difference.

  I am happy that you share your thoughts, please continue it helps us to get better.

  With best regards
  Digambara

  NOTE: You might have realized that when Engineering college was proposed in Berhampur by Orissa Govt. saying South Orissa region, I did oppose it to establish in Koraput.

• 6. Digambara  |  December 20th, 2008 at 2:56 am

  Dear Prof Baral,
  Rendo Majhi was a freedom fighter from Kalahandi in ninteenth century. He may be non-controversial but not well known nationally.

  Other state leaders from Orissa could be Nadini Satpathy, Hare Krushna Mahatab or Biju Patnaik. But this may hardly convience central govt. due to politcal reasons (all their sons are part of BJD/NDA)

  Unfortunately, except local MP from Kalahandi no other leaders has contributed greatly to Kalahandi. The district’s main irrigation project, upper Indravati, was pioneer idea of later Pratap Keshari Deo, MP from Kalahandi (father of current MP B.K. Deo) but he was from Jan Sangh. Jungarh-Lanjigarh road railway line is idea of Bhakta Charan Das, local MP. Vedanta was an initiative of local MLAs, Janaki Patnaik and later on Naveen Patnaik. But it was mainly due to buxite in Niyamgiri, Karlapat and other valley in the border of Rayagda-Kalahandi (given to L&T now). WODC initiaitve medical college is result of rasta roko by people of Kalahandi just before assembly election (actually it was initally proposed by local MLAs but later on state govt. dropped Bhawanipatna and proposed only Balangir and Rourkela in the cabinet). Fortuntately stike in Kalahandi save it and state cabinet aprrove it in next days. So people in Kalahandi does not see any state leader of great value for them.

  Other possibilty is to establish an institution in the name of Kalahandi itself so that there won’t be any political rift between state and center.
  I think any name like Biju Patnaik/Rajiv Gandhi/Rendo Majhi/Kalahandi would be fine if it is materailzed.

  With best regards
  Digambara

• 7. Chitta Baral  |  December 20th, 2008 at 7:45 am

  Dear Digambara:

  The SLIET and ABA GKC IET are both based on making institutes as memorial to leaders. See
  http://www.orissalinks.com/archives/1925
  So my thought was to propose something using that logic.

  I understand that the current govt. may not give something as a memorial to Biju Babu. But I am not fully sure. Biju babu is respected across the spectrum and the Orissa MP contingent will be motivated to create halla in the parliament for a memorial in the name of Biju babu. (They already feel that Biju babu has been neglected by not being given proper respect at the central level. So they will vehemently demand and I have a feeling that they will succeed.)

  In any case, I don’t think the Indian govt. will agree to any new higher education proposal (except may be branch of IGNTU in Phulbani) before elections. So after election if NDA is in power in Orissa and they demand a BPIET in Kalahandi, I have a feeling that regardless of which party is in Delhi, they will eventually agree.

• 8. Guru Panigrahy  |  December 20th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

  Dear Sir,
  Now with the state government planning for a govt. engineering college at Bhawanipatna, Digambara babu should be happy. He says that he was opposed to Engineering College at Berhampur and its such a loose statement which I can say is just unfortunate. We should have the guts to demand one more college/university instead of opposing if something is opened somewhere. We have not reached a stage of saturation as far as opening institutes are concerned, so, if someone opposes in this manner it hurts people and their feelings and also unnecessarily creates suspicion and hatred among different regions. One should not be so magnimous of opposing and supporting things by taking names.

  Guru

• 9. Digambara  |  December 20th, 2008 at 2:52 pm

  Yes, you are right. I was told by some people that actually in Orissa itself we have people in state politics who are not taking idea of Biju Babu as BJD is based on his name and will immediately give credit to this party. I do also remeber some of our own leader did not support when Biju Babu’s name was proposed for PM (when DewaGauda became PM).

  Any way, people of Kalahandi will definitely be very happy to have an institution in Biju babu’s name. Usually people love Biju babu a lot in Kalahandi (though I did not find any greater contribution to the dist by him). What people do appreciate his openness. I think no present leader can replace him in this character. When I was a student, I remeber he openly told on our college stage (when there was demand for a university in Kalahandi in the line of proposed North Orissa Univ, actually that time people in Baripada and Balasore were fighting for the location and later on two universities were established)…..” if one demands to have a University at his/her door step it is not at all possible….” I think very few politcal leader dares to have such courage to say openly in front of public.

• 10. Bidya  |  December 21st, 2008 at 12:11 am

  Dear Digambara,

  I\’ve gone through your comarison study and that is justified at it\’s place. I\’m happy that, i\’s coming to orissa and specifically to KBK. I\’ve seen many people in my region striving for higher education and ended up ruining their carrer due to lack of any standard eucational intitution near to their place. So, we need a propor balancing, if we really want to bring everyone to a common ground. why are we deprived of these facilities?
  What really impressive is, people are now more aware of their rights… I, welcome the decision of Central University at Koraput…

  I always read about Prof. Baral\’s effort towards building new orissa..Thank you all of your good efforts!! Please, keep on doing good to our state…

• 11. Digambara  |  December 21st, 2008 at 2:05 am

  Dear Guru Babu,
  You are absolutely right.

  I said I opposed in the context of Koraput at that point of time but in general for engineering institution in Orissa (Berhampur) I am/will not. My intention was to expose the deficiencies in KBKK and without comparison it does not work in our democratic system. Anyhow it was not meant to hurt people in Berhampur. If I hurt somebody in this context I am sorry about that.

  In fact I exchanged email with some people from Berhampur who expressed that they want an IIT in Berhampur and engineering college could be established in Koraput or Kandhamal.

  Some of the reasons for which I opposed are:
  Traditonally Orissa Govt always used Western Orissa for Sambalpur and South Orissa for Berhampur which I think should be more broad by now. We already passed 50 more years and we need to explore more towns in Western Orissa beyond Sambalpur, similarly in Southern Orissa beyond Berhampur.

  When one looks back the history for administrative region, central Orissa, state University was established in then Puri dist, Medical College was in then Cuttack dist. and engg college in then Dhenkanal dist, at the same time CET was also established in BBSR being state capital in the same way Rourkela was chosen for REC (NIT) due to steel plant/industries. Later on North Orissa Univ and Fakir Mohan Univ. were established by exploring in dist like Balasore and Mayurbhanj in the region.

  On the other hand, if one looks in Western and Southern Orissa, medical college, state Univ and engg college all were established in same dist instead of giving chance to other dist. in the region. So, my logic was to see beyond these undivided dist in South and Western Orissa.

  In Western Orissa the decision was made long time back, but in South Orissa decision for engg college was more recent. To be frank, in Southern Orissa location wise Berhampur does not suit for people such as in Nabarangpur/Malkangiri the way BBSR/Cuttack suits to Balasore, Dhenkanal people. Where as Nabarangpur does not suit for people in Berhampur or Kandhamal either. Similalrly in Western Orissa Rourkela/Keonjhar does not suit for Kalahandi and vice versa. So, we must distribute with various regions when we have limited resources.

  Otherwise I do not have any problem when all region has at least one and Berhampur/Sambalpur/Cuttack gets extra more. In fact I was also not in favor of Law University and Health University in BBSR region. Rather to put them in towns other than Rourkela, Cuttack and BBSR. That does not mean I completely reject the move, being capital city we must have some major institutions to compete in the national level, I understand in that respect but we are not progressing for development of interior Orissa, specially regions which are less acessible directly from state capital such as Koraput, Kalahandi, Balangir, Kandhamal, Keonjhar and Sundergarh. Due to Rourkela, Sundergarh did receive NIT and BPUT but progress on other dist was totally discouraging except very recently. I hope people in all region gets smart equally so that no region is ignored politically in higher education.

  Similar to South and Western Orissa, KBK has also same problem. People hardly realize that Koraput and Bhawanipatna are like saying Berhampur and Bhubaneswar or Sambalpur and Rourkela. Putting them together is like putting Berhampur and BBSR together. It might take 3 hours from BBSR to Berhampur by road these days, but from Bhawanipatna to Koraput it would at least take six hours by road these days, we need to understand difficulties of local people and bring development.

  The fact is that Berhampur people did worked hard for IIT since years, so engineering institution was consolation, similarly for Kalahandi people instead for Central University. I think we have not yet worked at the Government level to minimize the difference in Orissa logically.

  One practical thing is all MLAs easily support BBSR as their family live in the city but unfortunately when it comes to Berhampur/ Sambalpur/ Koraput/ Bhawanipatna/ Balasore it becomes regional and Govt has not yet come for a complete equlization of higher educational institution in undivided districts of Orissa (then we can discuss about divided dist).

  It is not denying that Berhampur people do deserve engineering institution and also national institution. In that respect I do welcome new engineering college in Berhampur.

  I think people of Orissa did help to expose state wise unequal distirbution of national institution in India, similalrly KBKK region may expose similar (undivided) distirct wise unequality in Orissa.

  Fortunately, many intelectual people from other parts of the state do realise and are extending their full help and support with open arm and as people of KBKK we must be very thankful to them.

  My opposition for the new engg college in Berhampur was issue based and not based on hatred. Any how, if Koraput gets a CU, Kandhamal gets a branch of IGTU (tribal univ) and Berhampur an IIIT, South Orissa would be in advantage of distributing national institution among its undivided dist. but still there are many things to work on.

  With regards
  Digambara

• 12. Guru Panigrahy  |  December 22nd, 2008 at 1:22 pm

  Digambara Babu,
  please don’t take it otherwise. I was just trying to point out that I.I.Ts or C.Us are just one for each state under normal circumstances and we can’t expect more IITs and CUs coming to the state soon and hence the debate over location is logical, but there is no such thing with Govt. Engg and Medical Colleges. Only Chennai city has more than 300 Engg Colleges. So, Orissa can easily have 100 Engg and 10 Medical College. So is the case with state universites. So, raising the pitch over an engineering college won’t be the best thing to happen in Orissa.

  But our aim should be to get the best deal from the present state government for regions who have not got due attention in the past. Not only Engg college at Bhawanipatna the next target must be the fast completion of the Medical College proposed earlier. Granting state university status to Bhawanipatna College is also a nice suggestion but all these must come on merit and not because some other place don’t deserve them.

  Guru

• 13. Digambara Patra  |  December 22nd, 2008 at 11:02 pm

  Dear Guru Babu,
  I do not disagee on your basic arguments.

  Just to correct: never said any region does not deserve.

  I opposed the move based on my logic to favore Koraput/Kandhamal over Berhampur for state Engg college at that point of time (I did not oppose IIT demand in Berhampur, it will be foolish to say a region with IIT potential does not deserve an engg college). I think if state Govt would have announced locations of two engg colleges, CU and IGNTU branch at the same time I might have rethought my argument that point of time.

  I wish it was like you said. Govt was not establishing engg college/medical college as we were expecting in all region, there was a severe regional disparity, South Orissa did not have any degree engg college for decades. KBKK did not have any higher educational institution at all. When a delgation of Kalahandi met CM/Orissa Govt twice for CU, they never spoke anything about engineering college, but they got one!!!

  Few facts: most of the 300 engg college in Chennai are private, same in Orissa (BBSR has 34 out of 63 in Orissa). We do not complain about this and one should not.

  In Tamil Nadu Govt. engg/medical colleges are there in all regions (recently 2 more govt medical college was proposed in rural TN) unlike Orissa. Thats what my agrument was to encourge more private player in BBSR, Berhampur etc (after having few state institution there) and focus to have at least one engg/medical/univ inst in regions who have not got due attention.

  “…..our aim should be to get the best deal from the present state government for regions who have not got due attention in the past….” You are right, but HOW??

  —Either by political influence or by comparing the similar fact figures within the same region/nation. That does not mean one is disrespecting/disproving other region. When we said we opposed the move of shifting IISER from Orissa to West Bengal it did not mean we disapprove it. I think factual data and comparison only work better in broad sense, otherwise people think its local/political demand and not on merit.
  regards

• 14. bipin bisoyi  |  December 23rd, 2008 at 8:32 pm

  We need technical institutions in the areas which have been historically neglected and are geographically inconvenient to the decision makers at Bhubaneswar. Hence the present decision to set up CU at Koraput and Engg College at Bolangir/Bhawanipatna is certainly commendable.
  At the same time I am not very enthusiastic about setting up of ordinary engg colleges in these areas as they do not contribute much the local population. But if a medical college is set up it benefits immensely to the locals.
  I feel that we must press the state govt to set up medical colleges in these underdeveloped rural areas. I am stressing upon this idea because medical facilities in these areas are pathetic and no Private entity would set up a medical college there even in PPP mode. We have seen this for many years. It is quite apparent that the govt. effort to set up medical colleges thro PPP at Bolangir or at Rourkela has failed. It is simply because private investors are not hopeful of decent ROI. PPP mode may be successful in urban areas but not in rural area. Therefore my suggestion would be state govt should set up medical colleges in KBK region rather than simply pursuing with PPP without any result.

• 15. Digambara Patra  |  December 23rd, 2008 at 11:36 pm

  Dear Bipin Babu,
  You are absolutely right. I do feel the same.
  I think instead of PPP, at least in Balangir state Govt should establish a fully state Govt funded medical college.
  Best regards

• 16. surya kanta choudhury  |  June 23rd, 2009 at 5:45 pm

  central university in koraput , it is a very good step in both central and state govt. for the kbk students. we r very happy to this proposal.