While some people in Orissa are questioning the need of 8000 acres by Vedanta, a more enlightened Andhra Pradesh is actually spending its own money to create a similar city. In comparison, Orissa is getting $1 billion from Anil Agarwal foundation which they will use to establish the Vedanta University and the surrounding city. (Note that the land that is being acquitred for this purpose is not for free; Vedanta University is paying for it, not the Orissa state government.)
CNN-IBN collaborated on a piece at ibnlive.com which talks about multiple protests in AP by various political parties regarding the location of IIT in Andhra and in that context also talks about shifting of IIT from Orissa to AP, and the CM of Orissa writing a letter to the PM about it.
Various news papers report that the CM has written to the PM on the IIT shifting issue. Following is some excerpts from the New Indian Express article.
BHUBANESWAR: Taking strong exception to the reported move of the Centre to shift the establishment of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) from Orissa to Andhra Pradesh, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Wednesday shot off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding that a greenfield IIT should be sanctioned for the State.The Centre had announced establishment of three greenfield IITs in the country during the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Orissa was included in this proposal, which was also announced by Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development MM Fatmi on August 28 last year at Patna.Describing the move by the Centre to establish the IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan as ‘shocking’, the Chief Minister has sought the intervention of the Prime Minister in setting up such an institute in Orissa. …