Intellectuals oppose IIT shift proposal, seeks PM's intervention

Dipti Ranjan Kanungo

Bhubaneswar, Feb. 6: Intellectuals, including the non-resident Oriyas, have opposed the Union government's move to shift the proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to Andhra Pradesh.

The intellectuals led by professor Chitta Baral of the USA's Fulton School of Engineering, have written a letter to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh urging him to reconsider the shifting proposal and establish the institute in Orissa as early as possible.

A copy of the letter has also been sent to the Congress president Sonia Gandhi for her perusal.

On Agust 28, 2006, the Union human resources development ministry had announced an IIT for Orissa. This news was very positively received by the people of Orissa, as having an IIT has been a long standing demand of the people. Its importance has dramatically increased in the current context as many industries of various kinds such as steel, aluminum, ports, power and have recently come to Orissa.

The intellectuals have said establishment of an IIT will certainly help feed the human resources to these industries.

"Orissa has no IITs, IIMs,IISc, IISERs, central universities or any institutions of national importance; and the state desperately needs an IIT type engineering college granting post-graduate degrees so that its 40-plus engineering colleges in the state can improve their faculty quality by sending these faculty to pursue part-time M. Tech and Ph.D degrees at a nearby IIT," the letter mentions.

It needs to be mentioned here that the Union government has sanctioned three new IITs to Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh. Each IIT would be set up at a cost of Rs 4,000 crore.

"We Orissans still believe in peaceful, non-violent, and

non-disruptive protests and hence we are writing to you. We

sincerely hope that you will annul the punishment of taking away an IIT from Orissa and allocate a new greenfield IIT for Orissa in the 11th plan, and remove any roadblocks from IIT Kharagpur's plan for a branch campus in Bhubaneswar and thus have the IITs in Orissa as was announced by your union minister of state for HRD M.A.A. Fatmi on August 28, 2006, in Patna.