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.
Continue Reading 5 comments June 7th, 2007
The coming assembly session of Orissa starts tomorrow. Various newspapers report that UPA injsutice regarding an IIT in Orissa will be a major issue in this session. Following are some excerpts.
1. Statesman:
The performance of UPA government at the Centre vis-Ã -vis allocations to Orissa is expected to hold centre stage during the budget session of the Assembly commencing here tomorrow.
Ruling BJD-BJP, which has been raising the hackneyed Central neglect theme in recent times, has decided to move a motion for discussion on the subject as well as one on price rise. Denying an IIT to Orissa, meagerly allocations under the Rajiv Gandhi Vidyutikaran Yojana and KBK programme are some of the issues with which the ruling combine is training its guns on the UPA government and the Congress party.
2. Telegraph:
On the other hand the BJD-BJP legislature party made it clear that they would continue to deplore the “step-motherly†attitude of the Centre towards Orissa.
Legislators of the ruling BJD-BJP and Opposition Congress today met separately at the Assembly to chalk out strategies a day before the commencement of the state Assembly Budget session.
Parliamentary affairs minister Raghunath Mohanty said the BJD-BJP alliance would bring two motions to be discussed in the second-half of the session.
“We will raise the issue of a special package for Orissa in view of the ill treatment and step-motherly attitude to Orissa in all matters. Take a look at the issue of setting up an IIT in Orissa or meagre Central funds for rural electrification,†he said.
1 comment June 1st, 2007
Update on June 1 2007: Pioneer has published a version of this article.
Tathya.in has a hard hitting article on the IIT issue that blames the Congress party. Following are some quotes from it:
After returning from New Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Jaydev Jena said “Prime Minister (PM) Dr Man Mohan Singh has agreed to visit Orissa soon.
Jena requested PM to visit Orissa shortly and review several ongoing Centrally-sponsored welfare program in the state to which the latter agreed.”
There was a similar report about Union Minister of State (MOS) for Rural Development Chandrasekhar Sahu meeting the PM and Dr. Singh agreeing to come to Orissa.
And that he may announce some new institutes such as Indian Institute of Handloom Technology.
Lets compare an IIT with the Indian Institute of Handloom Technology (IIHT) in terms of investment, said an analyst.
As per the budget of the Department of Textiles the total money for human resource development is Rs 3 crores.
It seems like this Rs. 3 crore includes the budget for 4 existing handloom institutes and probably as well as the new one proposed in Bargarh.
In contrast there is Rs. 80 crores towards the groundwork for 3 new IITs and Rs. 1553 crores for the exisiting 7 IITs .
So annual budget of an existing IIT is Rs. 222 crores while for an IIHT (Indian Institute of Handloom Technology) it is at best Rs. 1 crore.
Similarly it takes Rs. 1000-4000 crores to make an IIT and for an handloom institute would be costing Rs. 5-10 crores at best.
IITs offer B.tech. M.Tech and Ph.Ds and IIHT offers only diplomas.
…
But Congress MPs both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha kept mum.
The other day when the Opposition Leader J B Patnaik was asked about IIT he said the State Government is not serious about the issue as they have not sent any formal proposal to open an IIT to the Centre.
But what prohibits you to raise the issue and impress the PM for an IIT, he engaged himself in the blame game.
The point is abundantly clear that the myopic and timid leaders of the Congress are not in a position to put their weight on the central leadership for an emotional and justified demand like an IIT.
May 31st, 2007
Newsreports mention that Bharatiya Janashakti’s state unit as well as National Students Union of India (NSUI) have decided on state-wide agitation for the IIT in Orissa cause. Earlier we mentioned how BJD is making it a big issue.
To make sure that the IIT is issue is not just considered as a political thing and not grounded in facts, we who understand why an IIT is desperately needed must take actions from our side.
May 24th, 2007
Dear all:
Thank you for all that you have already done for the IIT in Orissa cause. We are chronicling the efforts and happenings at http://iitorissa.org and http://orissawatch.org
Based on various news reports following is the current situation -in a nutshell-with respect to getting an IIT in Orissa.
1. The media is regularly covering the issue and the general people in streets have become aware of the issue of IIT as well as the central neglect/injustice/discrimination against Orissa. http://iitorissa.org http://orissawatch.org
Continue Reading 1 comment May 21st, 2007
The IIT issue and the associated issue of central government neglect (injustice, discrimination) has become a hot political issue in Orissa. While the BJD and its CM supremo Naveen Patnaik has been discussing it forcefully in its meetings, even in villages; the Congress has been forced to respond. However the response of the Congress is feeble and lacks merit. BJD spokespersons (including MPs) have started mentioning economic blockade such as stopping coal transport and rail movement as a way to make the center take notice of Orissa’s genuine grievances in the HRD arena.
1 comment May 21st, 2007
CALLING ATTENTION
Need to set up an Indian Institute of Technology in Orissa
1408 hours
SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): Sir, I call the attention of the Minister of Human Resource Development to the following matter of urgent public importance and request that he may make a statement thereon:
“Need to set up an Indian Institute of Technology in Orissa as proposed in the Eleventh Five Year Plan and agreed to by the Government earlier.â€
Continue Reading 3 comments May 19th, 2007
Dear Readers of this site:
Lalit Patnaik, the working president of Agami Orissa met the CM as well as minister Chandrasekhar Sahu. They both highly appreciated what we common people have been doing on the IIT issue. They suggested that we should do that even more vigorously. It was conveyed that at the PM level the efforts of common people have a much bigger impact than efforts by party cadres. Hence my appeal to all of you to write or fax letters to the PM and copy it to to the CM as well as minister Chandrasekhar Sahu. Sample copies of letters are available at http://iitorissa.org.
Relevant addresses and fax numbers:
2 comments May 18th, 2007
It has been widely reported [Times of India, Statesman, Telegraph, Pioneer, New Indian Express, Samaja, Pragativadi, Kalinga Times] that the CM met HRD minister Mr. Arjun Singh on the IIT issue and Mr. Singh promised to consider Orissa for an IIT when the 11th is finalized.
However, Mr. Singh’s promise does not mean much. He has made such promises before during the time when the CM met him for NIS. In fact with respect to IIT Kharagpur’s campus in Bhubaneswar Mr. Singh’s meeting with the CM had been reported on September 29 2006 as follows:
The Chief Minister, Orissa, Shri Naveen Patnaik met the Union Minister for Human Resources development, Shri Arjun Singh today to discuss about the establishment of a campus of IIT, Kharagpur in Orissa. Shri Patnaik stated that the Government of Orissa have offered 300 acres of land next to Bhubaneswar city for setting up the campus and the State Government is fully committed to provide all necessary assistance for the institution. Since Orissa is fast emerging as a hub for industrial activities, an institution of the stature of IIT will provide the much needed boost to the efforts of the Government in providing support to these industries. The Union Minister, Shri Arjun Singh stated that the Central Government is positively inclined for setting up such an institution soon.
Similarly, with respect to KBK Central University Mr. Singh’s meeting with the CM had been reported on October 24 2005 as follows:
Statesman News Service BHUBANESWAR, Oct. 24. — Chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik today urged the Centre to accord approval for a central university in the undivided Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) districts, besides expediting setting up the proposed Regional Centre of Studies in Integrated Sciences at Bhubaneswar. These requests were made by the Chief minister during his meeting with the Union Human Resources Development minister Mr Arjun Singh at New Delhi today. Mr Singh sought a formal proposal from the state government for the establishment of a central university in KBK region while appreciating the rationale behind the idea, said an official release.
So we should not get lulled by Mr. Singh saying that he will consider. We need to put pressure on him from all sides to actually grant an IIT for Orissa.
3 comments May 16th, 2007
Orissa Minister of Tourism and IT Surya Patra talks to journalists about central apathy and specifically lays out what happened with respect to the IIT shifting as well as cancellation of the plans to establish a branch campus of IIT Kharagpur in Orissa. This is reported in major papers in Orissa: Dharitri, Samaja [1,2], Sambada, Pragtivadi, Statesman etc. In Samaja it is a front-page headline.
Samaja also has an article with a picture on the protest organized by BJD in regards to the IIT issue.
May 15th, 2007
Samaja reports on couple of IIT related protest meetings in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar; one is in Cuttack by CPI-M and the other in Bhubaneswar by the association of engineers.
Similarly Telegraph reports that the youth wing of BJD announced to launch a state-wide stir against UPA apathy, especially in regards to the IIT issue.
But it is somewhat funny that the AICC general secretary has been reported in Statesman to say that his party (i.e., Congress) had been pressing for establishment of an IIT in Orissa. It begs the question what he means by “his party.” Why then the Congress MPs did not join the protest by Orissa MPs in the parliament?
May 15th, 2007
Various news outlets report that the CM has written to the PM again on the IIT issue. [Statesman, India eNews, New Kerala,New Indian Express, Kalinga Times, India Edu news.net,Dharitri, Samaja, Sambada, Pragativadi]
Following are some quotes of what the CM is supposed to have written.
May 12th, 2007
During the last two days there have been many developments on the IIT in Orissa front. Following is a quick summary of them.
May 10th, 2007
Newsreports [Times of India, Hindustan Times, Tathya.in, Kalinga Times, Statesman, Indian Express, Sambada, Samaja 1,2,3, Dharitri 1,2,3,4 ,India-e-news, Pragativadi] and emails are coming in regarding the IIT issue being raised in the parliament. At first glance the news is negative, especially the headline in Times of India which says “Govt says No to an IIT in Orissa.”
However, this is a starting point in Delhi. Now the MPs can set up an appointment with the PM and make a case. Another good aspect of this is that the walkout by the Orissa BJD+BJP MPs is reported to have been supported by the NDA partners. We need to find out by how many and if there were any BJP stalwarts. In any case, this provides a fallback option. If the MPs fail to convince the PM, then having the NDA partners on board now, makes it easier if and when the NDA comes to power next.
If one is depressed after reading the news items, they may checkout what happened when the NIS issue was brought up in the parliament Q & A sessions in December 2005.
May 8th, 2007
In Today’s Telegraph, it is reported that:
“Goenka, who is also the chairman of the board of governors of IIT-Kharagpur, said the construction for an off-campus branch of the IIT would start this year. The state has already offered 300 acres of land near Bhubaneswar for the campus and is committed to provide all the necessary assistance for this purpose. The Rs 800-crore project would house nearly 5,000 students annually. The institute will impart technical education to around 5,000 students. ”
I don’t know if this is to be believed or not. However, let me briefly touch upon the history of this branch campus idea.
Continue Reading 3 comments May 3rd, 2007
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