Misinformation and ignorant campaign by Congress leader Kanhu Charan Lenka in a Samaja Op-ed
September 27th, 2007
Among the misinformation and ignorance in the following article are:
- The total acerage that is now earmarked is 6270 acres. (The article at one place says 18,000 acres and another place says 10,000 acres.)
- The quality of the land in terms of its agricultural potential is overstated.
- Ignorance about the existence of other top institutions with large land holdings.
- Ignorance about existence of other top universities with large student bodies.
- Ignorance about existence of research parks associated with universities.
- There is no conspiracy regarding real estate. Vedanta University in its web page clearly mentions their plan regarding building a township around the university for 500,000 people. That is a good thing. Money made in that would create a large fund for the university and help make it an excellent high quality university.
Also, I have not seen any Orissa govt. claim or Vedanta statement regarding any plans to get SEZ status for the university. In any case, education institutions probably already have tax-free status on certain aspects.
Entry Filed under: Odisha Congress opposes Andhra Congress lures,Vedanta University, Puri
6 Writeup
1. Trilochan Patra | September 28th, 2007 at 12:03 am
Actually Congress leader are not serious about higher education in orissa .As they had not tried at their time of ruling ,any such process of industrialization or giving best education in our stats so they seems to be very foolish.specially I could not expect such comments from a senior congress leader .
2. Parashar Das | September 28th, 2007 at 10:12 am
Baring land size & SEZ,the article got basics wrongs in the following area
1.vedanta’s is not producing Aluminai its plant in Lanjigarh since last 4 years.It was commissioned last April.
2.Lanjigarh plant is not a smelter.Vedanta is setting up smelter in Jharsuguda,where Aluminum will be produced from the Alumina produced from Lanjigarh plant.
3.He mentions there is no University having more than 6000 acers of land.Which is absolutely vague.
4.he mentions that land in the proposed site is very fertile.But for his information the land is not at all fertile due high contents of salt in the land.It may be a crop land but definitely not fertile.
Never expected a vague,vision lacking & foolish article from a seasoned politician like K.C. Lenka.
3. Debu | September 29th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
Vedanta University, ultimately will be a failure and will never be equivalent to Stanford Univ. Its not the Money which is needed only but something else !! Basically third worlds lack many things to compete with 1st world !! After spending money for couple of years Vedanta Univ. will realise that it lacks soemthing else which cannot be adjusted inspite of having money. For an example almost all country have Synchrotron Facility. India has two (INDUS-I and II) at CAT, Indore but are failed projects. None of them are functioning !! Govt. spent money like anything but failed !! Its just a simple small example and we are talking about Stanford type Univ. Currently all IISERs are facing difficulties to get faculty inspite of assurance of few crore as initial starting money. By defult India is in 3rd world and imagining to compete with Stanford is just a day dream.
4. Chitta Baral | September 29th, 2007 at 7:47 pm
Response to Debu: It is definitely not easy and it is not going to happen overnight. But I think at least the finance part is sound. One got to dream to get to the next level. Today Mukesh Ambani is about to surpass Bill Gates in net wealth and WIPRO, Infosys, TCS are formidable international forces in computer consulting. No one would have imagined the later 20 years back. So Vedanta Univ won’t become like Stanford and Harvard overnight. Even Stanford did not become top notch until 1950-60. Also, It may never become like Stanford or Harvard. But it has a dream and it has a seemingly sound financial plan. Its initial academic and administrative hires will give an indication of where it is really going.
5. Vasudha Samantaray | April 8th, 2009 at 11:25 pm
Just wanted to attract your attention to the following news
http://www.dharitri.com/080409/story16.asp
Thanks
Vasudha
6. Chitta Baral | April 9th, 2009 at 6:16 am
The press release of the Vedanta University people is at http://vedanta.edu.in/news/news/vedanta-university-to-bring-world-class-medical-care-to-orissa/