Tathya: Plz; no politics over IIT

Bhubaneswar:7/June/2007
Playing politics over setting up of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will harm the state, warned the Non Resident Oriyas(NRO)s.

While the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is playing truant over the issue, it is high time both Congress, BJD and BJP join hands to pressurize the Centre to agree for an IIT in Orissa.

NROs have sent hundreds of e-mail to the leaders of various political parties appealing for a joint action.

An IIT was announced for Orissa by the HRM Minister of State (MOS) M A Fatmi last year on Aug 28 in Patna.

Orissa will now be at the bottom of per-capita spending by MHRD on fully funded MHRD institutions.

With the very high level of industrialization and the 40+engineering colleges in Orissa (with about 30 of them in and around Bhubaneswar) there is a definite need for an IIT in Orissa which will allow faculty in these institutes to pursue M.Tech and/or Ph.D thus drastically improving those institutes as well as their graduates.

Many MPs of Orissa have raised the issue of IIT in Orissa in the parliament, the CM has met the HRD minister on this issues and it is reported that PCC President Jayadev Jena and Union Minister of State (MOS) Chandraskehar Sahu has met the PM on this issue.

Various groups all over Orissa have protested on the IIT issue and the newspapers have covered this issue so much so that a kid in a bettele shop in a small town Orissa knows about this.

However nothing concrete has come out of it and now while BJD and BJP are attacking the center for general neglect of Orissa, Congress has launched its own counter-attacks.

Both have forgotten that by this time other states with a united approach have received 23 new MHRD institutions with Kerala getting both a science institute IISER and a technology institute IIST (Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology), Andhra receiving an IIT, a SPA and, possibly two additional IIT clones, and so on.

Under these circumstances the people of Orissa would like to remind all parties and especially, Congress and the BJD and BJP that the IIT Orissa is neither a Congress nor a BJP& BJD party matter; it is something that Orissa needs desperately.

It is a mega investment for Orissa; which has the potential changing the higher education atmosphere of Orissa; it is an attractor of high paying, high spending, low land guzzling, and low polluting jobs; the kind of jobs Orissa needs.

We urge and warn Congress and BJP & BJD to work together on it and not just make it an issue of political tug of war.

We want the CM and the Union minister Mr. Sahu to jointly and immediately meet the PM, HRD minister and the planning commission on this issue.

We want an all party resolution in the assembly and a All Party Legislators delegation to immediately visit Delhi and camp in Delhi to make the case.

We want whatever possible to be done so that Orissa is allocated an IIT in the 11th plan, said NROs.

We are sure that if joint teams pursue this earnestly then the Central Government will have not other way but to grant Orissa an IIT in the 11th plan.