Delhi farmers offer land for state university
Earlier I wrote about people getting together and offering land for a university, a branch campus, or a new institute in Orissa. This is exactly what has now transpired in Delhi. I hope people in various parts of Orissa learn from this. Following is an excerpt from a report about the Delhi farmer’s offer.
… A delegation from Delhi’s villages called on Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit on Monday and presented to her a resolution offering 540 bighas of land in the Ghumanhera village in Najafgarh for opening of a State university.
A memorandum seeking opening of a new general university under the Delhi government and naming it after former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was submitted to Ms. Dikshit …
They said that opening of a new general university under the Delhi Government would benefit the farmers of Delhi as it would also help in implementation of the OBC reservation list under which the Jat community is covered.
Dr.Kumar had earlier also raised this issue with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for inclusive development in the rural areas by asking to give a portion of the developed land to the farmers from whom it is acquired, said that the meeting was a historic landmark as the farmers have willfully offered to give the Gram Sabha land for a noble cause.
… Sibal had however given a green signal to the plea, in writing to Dikshit that, the government should consider the plan and avail the help of the Centre to set up a new state university providing incentives to the states during the 11th Plan since the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University does not have seats in general higher education, in which a majority of students from the rural areas of Delhi are interested.
Following the interaction, Dr. Kumar said the Chief Minister declared that she would soon work on forming this new university and thanked the farmers for offering to give their land to Delhi Government for the purpose.
The underlined parts above are important points. (i) Returning part of the developed donated land to the farmers, which by then is multiple times worth the original land, is a win-win situation. (ii) General Universities are important and no matter the existence of NIT and BPUT, Rourkela, still the second largest metropolitan area of Orissa, must have a general university at the earliest.
December 23rd, 2009