Tathya: Please no politics over IIT
June 7th, 2007
Tathya.in has a nice article about NROs urging the Orissa politicians to unitedly work towards getting an IIT for Orissa. We urge the readers to write to Orissa leaders (in all parties) along the lines of the article. The chief minister’s email address is cmo@ori.nic.in and the union minister Chandrasekhar Sahu’s office fax number is 011-23061695. Following is the full article from Tathya with its permission.
Bhubaneswar:7/June/2007
Playing politics over setting up of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will harm the state, warned the Non Resident Oriyas(NRO)s.While the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is playing truant over the issue, it is high time both Congress, BJD and BJP join hands to pressurize the Centre to agree for an IIT in Orissa.
NROs have sent hundreds of e-mail to the leaders of various political parties appealing for a joint action.
An IIT was announced for Orissa by the HRM Minister of State (MOS) M A Fatmi last year on Aug 28 in Patna.
Orissa will now be at the bottom of per-capita spending by MHRD on fully funded MHRD institutions.
With the very high level of industrialization and the 40+engineering colleges in Orissa (with about 30 of them in and around Bhubaneswar) there is a definite need for an IIT in Orissa which will allow faculty in these institutes to pursue M.Tech and/or Ph.D thus drastically improving those institutes as well as their graduates.
Many MPs of Orissa have raised the issue of IIT in Orissa in the parliament, the CM has met the HRD minister on this issues and it is reported that PCC President Jayadev Jena and Union Minister of State (MOS) Chandraskehar Sahu has met the PM on this issue.
Various groups all over Orissa have protested on the IIT issue and the newspapers have covered this issue so much so that a kid in a bettele shop in a small town Orissa knows about this.
However nothing concrete has come out of it and now while BJD and BJP are attacking the center for general neglect of Orissa, Congress has launched its own counter-attacks.
Both have forgotten that by this time other states with a united approach have received 23 new MHRD institutions with Kerala getting both a science institute IISER and a technology institute IIST (Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology), Andhra receiving an IIT, a SPA and, possibly two additional IIT clones, and so on.
Under these circumstances the people of Orissa would like to remind all parties and especially, Congress and the BJD and BJP that the IIT Orissa is neither a Congress nor a BJP& BJD party matter; it is something that Orissa needs desperately.
It is a mega investment for Orissa; which has the potential changing the higher education atmosphere of Orissa; it is an attractor of high paying, high spending, low land guzzling, and low polluting jobs; the kind of jobs Orissa needs.
We urge and warn Congress and BJP & BJD to work together on it and not just make it an issue of political tug of war.
We want the CM and the Union minister Mr. Sahu to jointly and immediately meet the PM, HRD minister and the planning commission on this issue.
We want an all party resolution in the assembly and a All Party Legislators delegation to immediately visit Delhi and camp in Delhi to make the case.
We want whatever possible to be done so that Orissa is allocated an IIT in the 11th plan, said NROs.
We are sure that if joint teams pursue this earnestly then the Central Government will have not other way but to grant Orissa an IIT in the 11th plan.
Entry Filed under: IIT Kharagpur branch in Bhubaneswar,IIT, oDishA,MHRD bias against Odisha (past?)
5 Writeup
1. Vivek Hattangadi | June 7th, 2007 at 12:07 pm
No politics in IIT please. Whether it is in Orissa, or Bengal, Maharashytra or Gujarat it does not make any difference to students who are serious on studying
Vivek Hattangadi
2. Chitta Baral | June 7th, 2007 at 2:52 pm
It makes a difference to the overall development of the area where the IIT is located.
3. R. K. Ghosh | June 9th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Yes, indeed as Mr. Hattangadi says there should not be any politics in setting of IITs or any national level institutes in India. But the facts speak for itslef when the IISER planned at Bhubaneswar was transferred to Kolkata. Subsequently a decision to establish three more IISERs were made. One of these has already been established in Chandigarh and an appointment has been made to its director’s position. While one IISER each is set to be located in Trivandrum and Bhopal respectively. Three green-field IITs have been also planned; one each in Patna, Jaipur and Hyderabad respectively. Can any one say what kind of techno-feasibility study (politics excluded) were made to justify these decisions.
4. Umashankar | June 12th, 2007 at 4:32 pm
Chitta Babu and other,
We were hoping that the MLAs will at least discuss the IIT issue in the assembly. BUt, until today we have not seen anything like that.
This is the reality. It is sad that our leaders cant show a common face.
Regards
Umashankar Das
5. Ramesh Chandra Sabat | June 26th, 2007 at 2:43 pm
Hi All,
IIT is just an example. In general orissa has always been neglected by the Center. The fact that the State is giving less number of MPs, may be a reason for such neglects. The state politicians need to unite and fight for such cause. We are please to note and read from news sites that the prsent Orissa Government is putting its hard efforts in Steel sector. An IIT is definitely not as hard as steel, and YOU CAN DO IT.
Best Wishes,
R C Sabat