CM to meet PM on IIT issue on April 19th.
Pragativadi reports that the CM has secured an appointment to meet the PM on April 19th and one of the issues he will bring up is the IIT issue.
April 5th, 2007
Agami Orissa organizing a mass rally on the IIT issue: April 8th Sunday in Bhubaneswar (May 15 in Delhi)
(Update: Tathya.in has a nice story on this.)
(From Lalit Patnaik)
Dear friends,
Yesterday, Agamee Odisha has decided to call all it’s members and supportive organisation and also each & every Swabhimani Odia to join the Mass rally to Governor’s House on 8th April’07. Our demand for sanctioning an IIT in Orissa and upgrading UCE, Burla to IIEST will be handed over to Governor. The Memorandum will be sent for Priminister of India through Governor of Orissa. The rally will start from AG square to Governors House on 8th April’07( sunday) and the duration is from 8.30 am to 11 am.
Continue Reading 2 comments April 3rd, 2007
IIT issue rocks Orissa Legislative assembly (OLA)
The IIT issue rocked OLA yesterday. Some BJP legislators were very vocal about it and said they were fed up with the central government’s negelect with respect to higher education locations. In jest, some even suggested that Orissa should have an economic blockade against the center as suggested by Biju Patnaik decades ago. Other members suggested that an assembly committee on this issue be formed and that committee visit the Prime minister on this issue. The proceedings of the assembly on the debate on IIT shifting is further reported in Tathya.in, New Indian Express and Samaja (in Oriya).
2 comments March 30th, 2007
IIT issue raised by Orissa MPs in the 1st phase of the budget session of the parliament
Dharitri (page1, page 2, page 3, page4, page5, page6, page7) has a nice summary of the various issues raised by Orissa’s MPs in the just concluded first phase of the budget session of the parliament. It shows that various MPs raised the IIT in Orissa issue and MHRD’s discrimination against Orissa. In particular:
* BJD and BJP MPs gave a notice in the Lok Sabha on this issue, and received acknowledgement from the speaker, but it did not get a chance to be included in the Lok Sabha proceedings. (page1) We hope that they insist that it gets included in the second phase of the parliament session.
Continue Reading March 25th, 2007
Updates on the IIT Orissa issue
Pragativadi on 3/9/2007 reports that HRD minister Mr. Arjun Singh has said that the proposal for an IIT in Orissa is still under consideration and the state government has received a letter to that effect from Mr. Arjun Singh.
However, the headline of the Pragativadi news item “Arjun Singh assures Orissa will have an IIT” does not match with the text of the news item.
Continue Reading 2 comments March 14th, 2007
Three IITs for Andhra, none for Orissa
An IANS story with the above title has been picked by many papers including Times of India, Hindustan Times and New Indian Express. It talks about the green field IIT alloted to Andhra and the upgradation of Andhra University College of Engineering and Osmania University College of Engineering to IIT like institutions (IIESTs). It also talks about how Orissa was unlucky in neither getting a greefield IIT nor a branch campus of IIT Kharagpur. With the wide coverage this article has received I hope people all over India become aware of the divisive, partisan and discriminatory practices of the HRD ministry. I hope the UPA and its cabinet will realize the follies of their HRD minister and urge him to change course and not blatantly discriminate against Orissa.
Following are some links where the article of the above title appeared:
Continue Reading March 5th, 2007
Sudarshan Das on Agami Orissa’s “IIT in Orissa” plan
Recently we at Agamee Odisha had two rounds of preparatory meetings (on 26th and 28th Feb) on IIT- movement, of intellectuals, students, professionals, activists and Representatives of mass organisations, net work organisations, NGOs etc. These two meetings were well attended and one of the remarkable features of the meetings was that many important dignitaries attended the meetings and conveyed their solidarity to the movement for IIT in Orissa. In these two meetings the agenda of the first phase of movement has been finalised
which are as below-
Continue Reading 12 comments March 1st, 2007
Dr. Digambara Patra responds to HRD propaganda
Dear Honorable Union HRD Minister, Government of India, Mr Singh,
With reference to the news report published in Hindustan Times on 26th Feb 2007,
Reference:
http://digpatra.googlepages.com/20070227_HT_IIT.pdf
…
The argument made by HRD ministry saying “presence of 12 centrally funded educational institutes and announced NISER forbid Orissa to get a new IIT†is also equally baseless. If it would have been the case than Andhra Pradesh has 31 such centrally funded institutions including HRD ministry sponsored central university Hyderabad and beside many DRDO
laboratories, still the HRD ministry has proposed new IIT and is also considering for two new IIEST in the state. Additionally other central institutes like IIPH and NIPER are being established in Andhra Pradesh.
Reference:
http://digpatra.googlepages.com/20070227_state_wise_national_lab_ins.pdf
Continue Reading February 28th, 2007
Notes on the IIT shifting issue.
Some notes have been prepared on the IIT shifting issue. (word, pdf)
Please distribute it to appropriate people, especially lawmakers (MPs, MLAs) and journalists.
1 comment February 23rd, 2007
Agami Orissa’s preparotory meeting on the IIT issue on Feb 26th; Grand-Citizen-Convention March 8th
Following is a message from Agami Orissa. Chitta
Dear Friends,
A preparotory meeting has been convened, for the burning issue of IIT in Orissa, on 26th afternoon ( 3pm to 5pm) at Faculty Club, VaniVihar. All members and also other interested persons, not belonging to Agami Odisha but strongly feel Orissa has been cheated in IIT/IIEST issue, may participate in the meeting.
Continue Reading 3 comments February 19th, 2007
Union HRD secretary visits Orissa and says no IIT for Orissa; reactions
The union HRD secretary visited Orissa on Feb 6th 2007 and confirmed that there will be no IIT in Orissa this time around. There are strong reactions to this statement. The CM Naveen Patnaik calls this unfortunate. Brajakishore Sahu writes a hard hitting article on this in Dharitri (page1, page2, page3, page4, page5, page6). Orissatv.com has an article and also has a video clip showing the CM’s reaction.
For up to date detailed coverage on this, please visit http://iitorissa.org.
February 19th, 2007
CM’s letter to the PM on the IIT shifting issue
The CM’s letter to the PM on the IIT issue is at http://iitorissa.org. If the CM, busy amidst elections, could send a letter within 2-3 days of the news coverage of the IIT shifting, we should not delay further.
We must strengthen the cause of IIT for Orissa and the hand of the CM, by each one of us at least writing to the PM and planning commission.
Continue Reading 1 comment February 18th, 2007
Dharitri and Odisha.com have hard hitting articles on the Center’s indifference to Orissa
Dharitri (pdf: page1, page2, page3) covers the main story on “Center Does not Need Orissa” where it exposes how Orissa is being sidelined with respect to the national institutes being proposed in 11th five year plan. Odisha.com reports on Government of India’s betrayal towards Orissa and its people while establishing new IIT across India. (Based on Dr. Digambara Patra’s sentences.)
1 comment February 6th, 2007
Letter to the PM: Please donot take away an announced for IIT from Orissa
Dear Esteemed Prime minister of India:
The Times of India national edition [1] 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 [8,9] 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.
Continue Reading 2 comments February 4th, 2007
28th August 2006: PM visited Orissa; Did Orissa lose Rs. 3250 crores because of that?
On 28th August 2006 PM Manmohan Singh visited Orissa and announced the establishment of NISER (National Institute of Science Education and Research), which now has a budget of Rs. 750 crores. The same day Union minister of State of Human Resources of Development Mr. Fatmi announced in Patna that one of the greenfield IITs will be in Orissa. The budgets of the greenfield IITs are Rs 4000 crores each. It seems some officials at MHRD used the NISER in Bhubaneswar announcement as an excuse to remove Orissa from the list of IITs. Thus the Prime minister’s visit to Orissa has cost Orissa Rs 3250 crores.
February 2nd, 2007
Union minister of state for HRD Mr. Fatmi says Orissa govt. is unable to provide 500 acres for an IIT (Mounam Sammatim Lakshaynam)
Pioneer reports that referring to Vedanta University’s land requirement union minister of state for HRD Mr. Fatmi said:
He commented that at a time when the Orissa Government is unable to provide only 500 acres of land for establishment of a new Indian Institute of Technology in the State, it is going ahead with a proposal for setting up of a university on 8,000 acres of land.
When exactly did the central government asked Orissa for 500 acres and Orissa said No? In contrast the news items regarding the CM writing to PM about IITs suggest that the state voluntered land for the IIT extension campus and I am sure they would volunteer land for a greenfield IIT.
But more importantly, one should note that Mr. Fatmi did not say that he was misquoted in the Times of India. That means, indeed on Aug 28 2006, Orissa was one of the locations for a greenfield IIT as well as for a branch campus of IIT Kharagpur. Mr. Fatmi being a union minister, his pronouncement on this issue, makes it a formal announcement. Backing away from a formal announcement is cheating and discriminatory.
February 2nd, 2007