Odisha HRD

1 Writeup

• 1. Tusar Kanta Bal  |  February 26th, 2007 at 1:15 pm

  The Times of India national edition reported on 29th of August 2006 that the day before, in Patna, Union minister of state for Human resource development Mr. Fatmi had said: “The proposal for one IIT for Bihar and two for Orissa and one Western Indian state besides one IIIT to Bihar will be included in 11th Five Year Plan.”
  This news was very positively received by the people of Orissa, as having an IIT has been a long standing demand of the people of Orissa. Its importance has dramatically increased in the current context as many industries of various kinds (Steel, Aluminium, Ports, Power, Refineries, IT etc.) have recently come to Orissa or are in the process of coming to Orissa; Orissa is among the bottom 3 with respect to per capita MHRD funding of higher education institutions and has no IITs, IIMs,IISc, IISERs, central universities, or any institutions of national importance; and Orissa desperately needs an IIT type engineering college granting post graduate degrees so that its 40+ engineering colleges [10] can improve their faculty quality by sending these faculty to pursue part-time M.Tech and Ph.D degrees at a nearby IIT. Moreover, Orissa is one of the most backward states of the country with respect to various indices.
  However, recently it has been reported that the three new IITs to be included in the 11th plan, at a cost of Rs 4000 crore each, will be in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Comparing this news with the news of 28th August 2006, it seems that MHRD has replaced Orissa by Andhra Pradesh and has thus taken away the earlier announced IIT from Orissa and given it to Andhra Pradesh.
  This is shocking news and yet again suggests that the UPA government in general and the MHRD in particular have something against Orissa.
  We do not know if MHRD’s removal of Orissa and addition of Andhra Pradesh to the list of IITs has anything to do with your visit to Orissa and announcement (on Aug 28 2006) of the establishment of the NISER (National Institute of Science Education and Research) – with a budget of Rs 750 crores – in Bhubaneswar. If they are connected then your visit has cost Orissa 3250 crores; which is Rs 4000 crores (for an IIT) – Rs 750 crores (cost of NISER). However during your speech you had categorically stated that east is lagging behind in science teaching. But East has tremendous potential for the future. You are right in your statement. As per report, three eastern states of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa have the potential to unleash an unprecedented economic boom, which will have a direct and unassailable impact on all sections of their population. The report says, “The economies of Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Orissa also have the potential to grow from $30 billion in 2003 to $75 billion by 2015, in which the share of metals and minerals would increase from 27 to 46 per cent. This would also result in employment for 7,00,000 additional people by 2015 and the majority would be from the rural and small town population”.
  Thus capturing the potential will require a concerted and co-ordinated effort by the government and industry players. An IIT would have been the perfect decision for the eastern states in general and for Orissa in particular
  Moreover, logically thinking, Orissa should not lose a new IIT because of the NISER. The reason being NISER is funded by DAE and not MHRD and hence with or without NISER, Orissa will still be at the bottom of MHRD funding, and if one were to take into account institutes that are announced in 2006 and that are not funded by MHRD then NIPER (National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research) like institutes, funded by the ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers, were also announced for both Bihar and Andhra Pradesh. Similarly, in 2006 an IIPH (Indian Institute of Public Health) has also been announced for Andhra Pradesh and two institutes of Andhra Pradesh (Osmania University College of engineering and Andhra University College of Engineering) and three others (IT-BHU, CUSAT, BESU) were short listed for upgradation to IIT cousin status and were designated to be called IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology). These IIESTs are to be funded by MHRD. Thus it does not make logical sense to take away IIT from Orissa because of an NISER announcement and yet treat Bihar and Andhra Pradesh differently.
  Finally, Orissans were the first to raise the voice nationally in 2005 and 2006 and argue for equitable distribution of HRD money across various states. Two Orissa researchers came up with the notion of per capita MHRD funding on higher education of various states and showed that Rajasthan, Bihar, and Orissa were at the bottom.
  Its ironical that after MHRD seems to have bought into the index of per capita spending on higher education HRD developed by the Orissa researchers, they have punished Orissa. i.e., they picked Bihar and Rajasthan which are also at the bottom of MHRD funding but yet skipped Orissa.
  We Orissans still believe in peaceful, non-violent, and non-disruptive protests and hence we are writing to you. We sincerely hope that you will annul the punishment of taking away an IIT from Orissa and allocate a new green field IIT for Orissa in the 11th plan, and remove any roadblocks from IIT Kharagpur’s plan for a branch campus in Bhubaneswar and thus have the IITs in Orissa (during the 11th plan) as was announced by your union minister of state for HRD Mr. Fatmi on August 28th in Patna.