Odisha HRD

Learning from NIRTAR’s history

I was intrigued by the history of NIRTAR. I think one can take some lessons from it. Following is an excerpt from its history page:

During the visit of the then Hon’ble Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi to Orissa in 1975, Mrs. Nandini Satpathy the then Chief Minister of Orissa informed the PM that there was 16.5 acres of land with few buildings donated by late Shri Bijayram Mishra to Govt. of Orissa was available in the village, Olatpur of Cuttack District at 35 kms. from Cuttack/Bhubaneswar in a rural area which could be considered for the establishment of the Institute.

In the US communities or rich individual land holders have donated land for specific educational purposes to the government. One shining example is the University of California at Irvine. Following is an excerpt from the wikipedia entry on UC Irvine.

Unlike other University of California campuses, UCI was not named for the city it was built in; at the time of the university’s founding (1965), the current city of Irvine (established in 1975) did not exist. The name "Irvine" is a reference to James Irvine, a landowner who administered the 94,000-acre (38,000 ha) Irvine Ranch. In 1960, The Irvine Company sold 1,000 acres (400 ha) of the Irvine Ranch to the University of California for one dollar, since a company policy prohibited the donation of property to a public entity.

The NIRTAR example suggest that this may also work in the Orissa context.

• What if a group of people (say in Kalahandi) pool together 100 acres of land  and donate it to the Central University of Orissa Koraput for establishing a branch there. (They can be smart in their pooling so that they also have similar or more land adjacent to the donated land; that way they will benefit via the increase in their land prices when the university opens a branch there.)
• How about people in Berhampur taking a similar step with respect to IIT Bhubaneswar?
• If people of Rourkela were to pool together 50 acres and approach XIM, I am positive XIM will be happy to open a branch there. Now lets consider something smaller.
• The central government has proposed establishment of model colleges in some backward districts of Orissa. In those districts there are many smaller towns who would like those colleges to be located in their town. I think if a particular town’s people pool together 20-30 acres and offer it to the government for the model college then the chances of that town getting  the college will become much higher.  

In general, land is a big deal in Orissa and India and pooling together some acres and donating it to a reputable organization for a specific purpose has a high chance of achieving that purpose in a shorter time.

The point of mentioning the above is that while the government does have responsibility of doing things and helping in balanced development, at times people need to take proactive steps beyond demonstrations and demands. There are too many areas in Orissa that are crying for development and the areas where people take proactive steps on their own are going to be more successful than the others.

2 comments December 14th, 2009

RTI response on ESIC Medical College in Orissa

On 22nd October 2009 Prashant babu had filed an RTI with the following questions:

1. What are the reasons for choosing Bhubaneshwar, Odisha as the location for ESIC Medical College and Hospital, when Rourkela and its nearby areas are having the largest number of ESIC Insured Persons (ESIC Employees)?
2. On what ground Bolangir, Odisha was not considered as a location for the ESIC Medical College and Hospital?
3. Whether Rourkela as a location for ESIC Medical College proposed by Govt. of Odisha? If so please specify the date of such porposal? Who had sent the proposal (Name of the person/officer)?
4. If Rourkela was proposed, then on what ground it was not considered by ESIC for setting up the Medical College and Hospital?

He has now received the response. They are as follows:

1. Govt. of Orissa has offered 25 acres of land at Bhubaneshwar for setting up medical college by ESI Corporation.
2. There was no such proposal for consideration.
3. Govt. of Orissa has not proposed Rourkela as a location for ESIC medical college.
4. Not applicable. 

Different people are interpreting this different ways. My interpretation is as follows: 

• It is clear now that Orissa government plays a crucial role in deciding on the location of the ESIC medical college. The center may still say yes or no to a proposed location but it does not seem to have the power to propose a location on its own. This means the CM needs to be convinced. (That is why it was a big step to get the hint that the CM is now aware of the issue. However, it remains to be seen how accurate that information is.)
• Newspaper reports can not be trusted completely. From first hand experience I know that if there is a paper about X in the desk of a secretary some news papers have printed it as Orissa government has a proposal for X. There have been times where an email I sent to the government, which happen to lie in the desk of a secretary, has later appeared in the news papers as an Orissa government proposal whereas in reality my email printout probably went to some file (at best) or the dust bin. So my analysis is that somebody in Orissa government mentioned the name Balangir in the ESIC medical college context and it probably never made it out of the Orissa government; but regardless the newspapers printed about it. Its also possible that somebody on purpose gave wrong or misleading information to the media.

In any case, Prashant babu desreves thanks for using the RTI mechanism to get these answers. Now it is clear where the buck stops on this matter (the CM) and where the efforts should be concentrated on (the CM).  With the reluctance of the Rourkela MLA and the Labor Minister to bring this issue to the CM, some other way to access the CM and convince him about Rourkela needs to be found.

3 comments December 14th, 2009