Orissa at the receiving end of MHRD again: Announced for new IIT for Orissa shifted?

Center agrees for an IIT in Orissa on March 28th, 2008

2008-03-28T07:25:00.000-07:00

Mission Accomplished! Title of the blog is not being changed to preserve a historical account of the movement to correct an injustice and get an IIT to Orissa.

More details on the road to an IIT in Orissa is at http://iit.orissalinks.com/.

See http://www.iitbbsr.net for information on IIT Bhubaneswar.

Details of the PIB that mentions an IIT in Orissa is as follows:

Ministry of Human Resource Development

PRESS NOTE - STATES IDENTIFIED FOR LOCATING NEW CENTRAL INSTITUTIONS OF HIGHER EDUCATION IN THE 11TH FIVE YEAR PLAN
	11:55 IST

The 11^th Five Year Plan, endorsed by the National Development Council in December, 2007, envisages, inter-alia, establishment of the following new higher education institutions in the Central sector:

A Technical Education Institutions

· 8 Indian Institutes of Technology

· 7 Indian Institutes of Management

B Central Universities

· 14 Universities aiming at world class standards

· 16 Universities in States which do not have a Central University at present

2. Out of the above new institutions, location decisions had already been taken in the case of 4 IITs and one IIM. Hon’ble Prime Minister has since approved the proposals made by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, for the location of the remaining institutions as per the details given below.

Location of new IITs/ IIMs.

3. Location of 4 IITs (in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Bihar and Himachal Pradesh), and one IIM (at Shillong) have already been announced. The Central Government has now decided to locate the remaining 4 IITs and 6 IIMs in the following States :-

IITs - Orissa, Madhya Pradesh (Indore), Gujarat and Punjab

IIMs - Tamil Nadu, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh (Raipur), Uttarakhand and Haryana In addition, it is also proposed to convert the Institute of Technology of the Banaras Hindu University into an IIT. Admission to this Institute is already based on the IIT – Joint Entrance Examination.

Location of 14 World Class Universities

4. As regards 14 Central Universities aiming at world class standards, it has been considered necessary that these are located in or near selected large cities which would automatically have the kind of connectivity and infrastructure which such universities would need. Accordingly, it has been decided to locate one such University in each of the 14 States/Region as shown in the enclosed List, and to request concerned State Governments to identify adequate land in or near the selected cities.

Location of 16 Central Universities in Uncovered States

5. 16 States which do not have a Central University at present, and which will get one Central University each in the 11^th Plan are Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Goa. Of these, in three States, existing State Universities will be taken over by the Central Government and converted into Central Universities. These three Universities are Dr. Hari Singh Gaur University, Sagar (in Madhya Pradesh), Guru Ghasidas University, Bilaspur (in Chhattisgarh), and Goa University.

6. Establishment of IITs, IIMs and Central Universities in the above States is subject to State Governments offering adequate land at suitable locations, free of cost, for the purpose. Each of the concerned State Government is being requested to offer land accordingly. Actual establishment of these institutions would however depend, among other things, on how quickly the concerned State Governments respond by allotting adequate land at suitable locations.

State-wise List of Cities Identified for locating 14 Central Universities during the XIth Plan which would aim to achieve world class standards

State City

1. Maharashtra - Pune

2. West Bengal - Kolkata

3. Tamil Nadu - Coimbatore

4. Karnataka - Mysore

5. Andhra Pradesh - Vishakapatanam

6. Gujarat - Gandhinagar

7. Rajasthan - Jaipur

8. Bihar - Patna

9. Madhya Pradesh - Bhopal

10. Kerala - Kochi

11. Punjab - Amritsar

12. Orissa - Bhubaneshwar

13. Uttar Padesh - Greater NOIDA

14. North Eastern Region - Guwahati

.....

Department of Higher Education, Ministry of HRD

PIB, New Delhi; Chatra 08, 1930,March 28, 2008

HB/VL/SB/conference28.3

BJP repeats demand for IIT in Orissa

2007-10-30T00:35:00.000-07:00

The New Indian Express, Oct 30, 2007
W Orissa neglected, says BJP

BHUBANESWAR/BHAWANIPATNA: Ties between the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) reached a new low on Monday with the latter alleging that the State Government is neglecting the western and southern Orissa districts where the party has a base.

Though the BJP did not hit out at the ‘Big Brother’ openly, the tone and tenor of the speeches of the grassroots level leaders at the meeting hinted that the alliance is almost over at the village and block levels.

BJP general secretary Vinay Katiyar’s directive to the State functionaries to prepare the party machinery for election in all the 147 constituencies conveyed the feeling that the party is not prepared to take things lying down any more.

Addressing a media conference, State BJP president Suresh Pujari expressed concern over the deteriorating standard of higher education in the State and demanded that vacant posts of lecturers in the backward districts should be filled up.

Criticising the State Government’s new policy of giving block grants to school and colleges, Pujari said the system of regular grants should be reintroduced. Stating that Kalahandi needed special attention in the field of road communication and education, Pujari demanded that the Western Orissa Development Council (WODC) should be made autonomous. Pujari welcomed the industrial policy of the State Government.

He, however, observed that there should be rehabilitation and the affected families be given priority in employment. The political resolution adopted at the meeting criticised the Centre for neglecting the NDA-ruled States.

Alleging that institutions of higher education, including Central university, IIT and IIM are being diverted to neighbouring States ignoring the claim of Orissa, the party demanded that such institutions should be established in the State. Pujari demanded that all the villages in the State should be included in the village electrification programme and funding for KBK scheme be increased.

Japan to help in setting up IIT

2007-08-13T04:05:00.000-07:00

Times of India, Aug 9, 2007

PATNA: Lord Buddha has smiled on Bihar, the land where he gained enlightenment. The Japanese government is willing to lend a helping hand in the establishment of the proposed IIT at Bihta in Patna district in view of the state's close affinity with Lord Buddha.

"The Union HRD ministry has already made recommendations for technological collaboration with Japan for setting up the proposed IIT in Bihar," state science and technology commissioner Ajay Kumar Thakur said. Japanese PM Shinzo Abe will be handed over a proposal to this effect on his arrival to India on August 21, he added.

The Japanese premier, during his visit in April 2005, had himself proposed to extend help in the establishment of an IIT in India. Last year, the Union cabinet approved setting up of new IITs in India in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar.

While the governments of Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan lobbied hard for the Japanese help for setting up IITs in their respective states, the Bihar government lagged behind in locating the requisite 500 acres of land. Furthermore, it did not even lobby for the Japanese help. Incidentally, the land in Bihar is being acquired from 130 farmers. As many as 120 of them have already given their consent in this regard.

"Japanese collaboration means inflow of funds and latest technology. Also, the Japanese experts could extend their expertise and technologies in other fields as well," Thakur said. He pointed out that all the IITs in India had collaborations with either USA, UK or Germany. With the Japanese collaboration, the IIT to be built in Bihar will have a definite edge over the other two IITs to be built in the other two states.

Move for 8 more IITs, 7 IIMs

2007-08-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

Times of India, Aug 2, 2007

NEW DELHI: In a major rollout for high and technical education, Planning Commission has proposed a seven-year special plan (2007-14) which includes setting up eight new IITs, seven new IIMs, 20 NITs, 20 IIITs and 50 centres for training and research in frontier areas.

Of the IITs, three have already been cleared and one IIM at Shillong has received the green signal. The seven-year special plan for higher and technical education would start in the 11th Plan and spill over to the next without being diluted. The plan panel has proposed a funding of Rs 1.31 lakh crore for the seven year plan.

The full Planning Commission will discuss the proposal threadbare when it meets on August 6 to deliberate exclusively on the impetus that should be delivered to education for the 11th Plan.

The special plan envisages setting up of 30 central universities. One central university will be located in each of the 16 uncovered states while 14 new ones of world class will come up in states which provide land free of cost in attractive locations.

These universities will have various schools including medical and engineering institutions. Also, 370 new degree colleges in districts with low gross enrolment ratio would be established and 6,000 colleges would be strengthened.
In the field of technical education, the seven-year plan talks of expansion and upgradation of 200 technical institutions in various states. There is also a plan to upgrade seven technical universities which include Bengal Engineering College, Howrah, Cochin University of Science & Technology, Andhra University Engineering College, Vishakapatnam, University Engineering College, Osmania University, Jadavpur University, Institute of Technology BHU and Zakir Husain College of Engineering & Technology, AMU.

Apart from eight IITs and seven IIMs, there is a plan to have five Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, two Schools of Planning and Architecture, 20 National Institutes of Technology, 20 Indian Institutes of Information Technology and 50 centres of training and research in frontier areas.

The central assistance under the special plan has a very strong reform component and looks up to states to agree for a minimum set of reforms to restructure higher education system covering admission, revision in curricula, collaboration with foreign universities and networking.

Rejoinder to Mr. Jairam Ramesh's comments in Bhubaneswar

2007-06-20T22:33:00.000-07:00

To: Jairam Ramesh <jairam@sansad.nic.in>, jairam@vsnl.com
Cc: ie.pksahoo@gmail.com, omthanvi@expressindia.com, pksahoo2002@gmail.com, shekhar@expressindia.com, c < shekhar.gupta@expressindia.com>, "pk.sahoo@expressindia.com" <pk.sahoo@expressindia.com>, "saubhik. chakrabarti" < saubhik.chakrabarti@expressindia.com>, 10janpath@vsnl.net, akshivakumar@gmail.com , betifoundationlko@yahoo.co.in, dr.vk@ucalfuel.co.in, madhavchavan@gmail.com, mirimrinal@hotmail.com, naresh.saxena@gmail.com, "C.H. Hanumantha Rao" <postmaster@cess.ac.in>, "Dr. D.Swaminadhan " <dsrf@ap.nic.in>, "Dr. Manmohan Singh" <pmosb@pmo.nic.in>, george@nde.vsnl.net.in , abhijit.sen@yojana.nic.in, anwarul.hoda@yojana.nic.in, b.mungekar@yojana.nic.in , dch@yojana.nic.in, kirit.parikh@yojana.nic.in, mvraja@yojana.nic.in, plancom@nic.in, s.hameed@yojana.nic.in, vl.chopra@yojana.nic.in, yugandhar.bn@nic.in, cmo@ori.nic.in

Dear Mr. Ramesh:

I read about your visit to Bhubaneswar and some news reports
and quotes of yours in Statesman. (See article below.)

1. One of them says:

"I do not want to score political points but what if I ask what were
these people doing in all the six years that the NDA was in power.
The IIT could have come up in six years time , what were you
(the BJD) doing when all that you needed was to take up the file to
Mr Vajpayee and he would have signed it," shot back Mr Ramesh.

2. Another paragraph of that report says:

Repeatedly emphasising that he was one with the demand of the
state for institutes of higher education, Mr Ramesh said at the same
time, one should realise that an IIT will solve the problem of unemployment.
Has Kanpur IIT contributed in any way to Kanpur? In fact, IITs have
contributed more to the US economy than Indian economy, he remarked.

===

Mr. Ramesh: I don't know if your intent was to score political points or if this is your thinking. You are quoted as saying that "you do not want to
score political points", so these must be your real views.

(1') Your comment (1) implies that a state can get an IIT (or similar institute) only when its coalition is in power in Delhi. Do you really mean that? So is the UPA government in Delhi only for states with UPA friendly
governments and the rest should go to hell in regards to higher education
institutions? Not only that you seem to be implying that it is not right (timing) for Orissa to ask for an IIT now because the ruling party
of the state is not aligned with the center.

If your thinking is the thinking of UPA, it is a pity that
millions of people of Orissa and a billion plus of India think that the Govt in Delhi is for all of India, not just for the specific subset of states which have a UPA friendly government.

Also, you must know the economic situation 5 years back and what is
predicted of the coming 5 years and beyond. What India could not afford 5 years back it can afford in the coming five years. So any time Orissa asks for something the UPA leaders keep replying back that why they did not get it during NDA rule. The simple answer is: *The economy of India 3-5 Yrs back was different than what it is now.* and Mr. MM Joshi had said exactly that when asked about IIT in 2002. Please see the last item of
http://www.orissatv.com/pratidinnewsarchives.asp?passed=9/21/2002
Moreover no IITs were announced during NDA time.

So when you and other UPA leaders and Orissa congress leaders
repeatedly harp on what did not happen in the past, one wonders if it is a
mere cover for UPA's strategy in regards to where MHRD higher education budget goes: to states where the MHRD ministers come from or states with big contingent of UPA allied MPs. (example: Big winners: MP -- Mr. Arjun Singh come from there, AP -- Ms. Rao comes from there, lots of UPA MPs come from there. etc.)

So far MHRD has announced 24 national level institutes and universities;
none of them are in Orissa. Please see list below. Yet, Orissa is now at the bottom of the list for per capita spending by MHRD. See details below.

(2') In regards to your comment that "Has Kanpur IIT contributed in any way to Kanpur?", what about the contribution of similar institutes to the locality they are in all over the world starting from contribution of MIT to the Boston area, of Stanford and Berkeley to the San Francisco Bay area, and our own IISc and all the public sector electronics companies in Bangalore to the current Bangalore. Moreover, if one thinks of the future
it is expected (and almost certain) that the IITs will contribute a lot to the
locality where they are in.

I do not know specifically about Kanpur, but it has already
started in Kharagpur. IIT Kharagpur is helping in the
development of a Biotech park near it.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1232755.cms
It has also decided to create a super specialty hospital and start a medical college in Kharagpur.
( http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060322/asp/frontpage/story_5998168.asp)
More on IIT Kharagpur's expected contribution is at:
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1070614/asp/bengal/story_7919068.asp

(3) The Statesman article also says that you were trying to convey
that how the Orissa CM did not really ask you much. Just in case it did not dawn on you: when one's repeated demands and requests are ignored, what is the point in asking.

Worse consider this; Mr. Naveen Patnaik visits the HRD Minister in
October 2005 (see http://rc.orissa.gov.in/index3.asp?sublinkid=133&linkid=30 )
and tells him a great idea to have a KBK Central University for tribals, and Mr. Singh acknowledges that it is a great idea and then it seems (as reported) makes a committee with your NAC colleague and well respected Dr. Swaminadhan as the chair to give him (Mr. Singh) cover to steal the idea and make the tribal university in MP. [I asked about the time line to confirm this but did not get any reply from Dr. Swaminadhan or the UGC.]

Coming back to IIT: Union minister of state for HRD MAA Fatmi is reported (in Times of India) on 28-8-06 to have said in Patna, "The proposal for one IIT for Bihar and two for Orissa and one Western Indian state besides one IIIT to Bihar will be included in 11th Five Year Plan," See attached page.

After that probably someone in UPA had the aha moment
and realized that Orissa is not UPA ruled, and promptly Orissa
was removed from the list and since then people of Orissa have been
trying to point this injustice out.

With this background, it is understandable that the Orissa CM Mr. Naveen Patnaik. decided not to ask your UPA government for anything. You and your government just can't be trusted. Your HRD minister will say he is positively inclined and that will become a NO. He will like the logic behind an idea and then allegedly steal it to his home state.

The above feeling goes beyond the ministers to the secretary level in Orissa. I personally have met some officers at Orissa secretariate who cringe when asking something from central govt. is mentioned. They feel it is of no use and a waste of time. To them central govt. is a bully and loves
harassing them asking for this document and that document, and finally
stealing their ideas to politically aligned states.

===

Finally, Mr. Ramesh, its a pity that, with your implications that
(a) Orissa not being a UPA allied state should not expect much and only UPA allied states can get the national institutes and (b) IITs have no impact on the location where they are located, you are also a member of
the National Advisory Council. With people like you at the helm of UPA and NAC, Orissa and as a result India has no hope. (You know for India to rise, all parts of it have to rise; not just the home town and states of the UPA ministers and states allied with UPA.) All the concerns and talk about equitable distribution, taking care of the deprived etc. that you and your government engages in is just talk. The actions speak otherwise.

All that matters is which group/state supports UPA and its ministers and which does not. The state govt. that are allied will get the goodies and the others like Orissa, no matter how big a need they have, will be punished and things will be taken aways, ideas will be stolen, coal royalty rates will not be updated in time, etc.

Mr. Ramesh: Thank you for coming to Bhubaneswar and taking the blind out of the eyes of people of Orissa. They now know where they stand vis-a-vis your government. Hope the rest of India also knows about this.

sincerely

an extremely sad and disappointed Oriya

Chitta Baral

************************************************************************
24 institutes announced by MHRD during the UPA government: None in Orissa
************************************************************************

IISER Kolkata, West Bengal (1)
IISER Pune, Maharashtra (1)
IISER Mohali, Punjab (1)
IISER in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (1)
IISER in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala (1)
IIT in Andhra Pradesh (1)
IIT in Rajasthan (1)
IIT in Bihar (1)
IIM at Shillong, Meghalaya (1)
SPA in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh (2)
SPA in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (2)
Upgradation of Bengal Engineering and Sc U to an IIT clone (IIEST), West Bengal (2)
Upgradation of Andhra Univ Engineering College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (3)
Upgradation of Osmania Univ Engg College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (4)
Upgradation of IT BHU to IIT clone (IIEST), Uttar Pradesh (1)
Upgradation of Cochin Univ of Sc and Tech to IIT clone (IIEST), Kerala (2)
IIIT Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu (1)
Allahbad University made to a Central University, Uttar Pradesh (2)
Manipur University made to a Central University, Manipur (1)
Arunachal Pradesh university made to a Central University, Arunachal Pradesh (1)
Tripura university made to a Central University, Tripura (1)
New Central University in Sikkim, Sikkim (1)
CIEFL Hyderabad made to a central university, Andhra Pradesh (5)
Indira Gandhi Nationan Tribal University, Madhya Pradesh (3)

******************************************************************************
Per capita MHRD spending on its fully funded institutes
******************************************************************************
See http://equitableindia.org

MHRD was scheduled to spend Rs 4.07 on fully funded HRD institutions
(like IITs, IIMs, etc.) per person in Orissa, while it will spend Rs 183.08 in
Delhi, Rs 41.20 in West Bengal, Rs 33.4 in Karnataka, Rs 27 in Tamil Nadu,
Rs 28.38 in Maharastra, Rs 17.73 in UP, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 33.27 in
Punjab, Rs 8.13 in Haryana, Rs 7.90 in Kerala, Rs 9.02 in MP,
Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar.
In other words Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa were at the bottom
of per-capita spending by MHRD in its fully funded higher
education institutions. IITs have been given to Bihar and Rajasthan.
What happened to Orissa? Why was Orissa skipped over?

*****************************************************************************
The statesman article about Mr. Jairam Ramesh's visit to Bhubaneswar
*****************************************************************************

Time factor in fulfilling IIT dream

Statesman News Service
BHUBANESWAR, June 20: "Much as I am fond of CM Naveen Patnaik, much as I like him, I have to say that in all the time I spent talking about projects related to Orissa's export potential the only question that he asked was " how is Kamal," remarked Union minister of state for commerce Mr Jayaram Ramesh.
The Central minister's barb at the CM came when he was responding to questions on the alleged neglect of Orissa by the UPA government.
Listing out the various issues/projects he had raised during his meeting with the CM yesterday, Mr Jayaram Ramesh quipped ~ "all that the CM asked me was how is Kamal (Union minister Mr Kamal Nath). He (the CM) is a very busy man running a big state and he was frequently looking at his watch, added Mr Ramesh.
"I have met chief ministers who send e-mails placing their demand, who sit on my head and hammer their demands during discussions with me," he added rubbing home the implicit point that nothing of this sort took place at his meeting with Mr Naveen Patnaik.
Dismissing all talk of UPA government neglecting Orissa, Mr Ramesh said such charges are irresponsible and absurd. Nobody ever conspires to starve a state of funds, he retorted. "I do not want to score political points but what if I ask what were these people doing in all the six years that the NDA was in power. The IIT could have come up in six years time , what were you ( the BJD) doing when all that you needed was to take up the file to Mr Vajpayee and he would have signed it," shot back Mr Ramesh.
Repeatedly emphasising that he was one with the demand of the state for institutes of higher education, Mr Ramesh said at the same time, one should realise that an IIT will solve the problem of unemployment. Has Kanpur IIT contributed in any way to Kanpur? In fact, IITs have contributed more to the US economy than Indian economy, he remarked.
Reeling out figures of how Orissa had got the maximum assistance from the UPA government, Mr Ramesh said it is the only state in the country which is fully covered under the NREGA and Backward Region Grant put together. Be it the National rural health mission or any other Central programme, Orissa and other backward states have been accorded priority, he stated.

http://iitorissa.googlepages.com/PUmayfinallygetCentralvarsitystatus-.pdf

Fax campaign against repeated injustice by MHRD

2007-06-17T19:14:00.000-07:00

Dear Readers:

I hope many of you are enraged and disgusted by this repeated injustice meted out to Orissa by the MHRD; especially now it seems that the MHRD has orchestrated hijacking of a good, sensible and extremely relevant idea proposed by our chief minister: the idea of tribal central university in the KBK region with the goal of catering to the 50% tribal population in that area and 38% tribal population across Orissa.

Often many have blamed the Orissa government for not taking timely initiatives or not coming up with innovative ideas, but this time it took the initiative, it suggested a great idea, followed up on it regularly, but the end result is same; the idea gets implemented in the home state of the minister of HRD Mr. Arjun Singh.

We must convey our displeasure, disgust, deep disappointment and anger to the central government. Please fax a letter to the PMO (fax numbers: 011-2301-8668, 2301-5470, 2301-5603, 2301-8939 ) and also fax a copy of that letter to the CMO (0674-2400100 ) and Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu (011-23061695), the sole central minister from Orissa. After that we must follow-up with the CMO (cmo@ori.nic.in) by email and Mr. Sahu by phone (Personal Secy: 09868501233 off: 011-23792469, 23792470) and tell them to take our faxes and meet the PM and the national press with all our faxes and do a dharana until the two immediate injustices of moving an IIT in Orissa after it was announced and stealing the idea of a tribal university proposed for the KBK area are corrected. Following are some pointers and points which may help in writing your letter. I am making it short so that its easier for you to draft the letter.
On KBK Tribal Central University:

We have been keeping track of this in a blog of its own, http://kbkcentral.blogspot.com, since the idea was first formally mooted in October 2005. See also the earlier postings in this site under that category.
Oct 24 2005: The CM meets the HRD minister Mr. Arjun Singh and proposes the idea of a KBK Central University and Mr. Singh appreciates the idea. Following is an excerpt of a press release that discusses it.

… In addition to this, Shri Patnaik also requested for establishment of a Central University for the KBK Region, which is one of the most backward regions in the country. He pointed out that there was a heavy concentration of the scheduled tribe and scheduled caste population in this region, which has a literacy rate below 50%. Shri Patnaik stated that setting up a Central University in the KBK region would go a long way in encouraging higher education among tribal population. He added that the university could also set up specialized centres for tribal development related studies, as tribal development was one of the biggest challenges facing the country today. Shri. Arjun Singh appreciated the rationale of having a Central University in the KBK region and sought a formal proposal in this regard from the State Government. He assured that this would receive high priority whenever the Central Government considers setting up of new central universities.

Since then the Orissa government and the representatives of Orissa have brought up this issue many many times.

The MPs brought it up in Rajya Sabha on December 19 2005. (See page 2 right column)
See http://kbkcentral.blogspot.com/ for the numerous times this have been brought up by the CM, by other ministers from Orissa, etc.

A detailed proposal was sent by the Orissa government as well as by us.
Here is our proposal. (word, pdf) This document has lots of detailed statistics in case you may want to use some of it in your letter.
Hundred of us also sent letters about it to the PM, planning commission, etc. (word) This letter also has lots of detailed statistics in case you may want to use some of it in your letter.
The Hindu first reported on the plan for the tribal university in Madhya Pradesh. Following is an excerpt from it. One may compare this excerpt with the Orissa government press release on Oct 24 2005 and it becomes clear that the idea proposed by our CM was stolen.

… The Indira Gandhi National Tribal University will encourage studies on tribal art, culture and traditions, forests and natural resources. Tribal students will be given priority in admission. … The D. Swaminadhan Committee, set up by the University Grants Commission, recommended the setting up of a varsity exclusively for promoting tribal culture and providing tribals access to higher education.

On an IIT in Orissa:

This is also a good opportunity, we must remind the PM regarding the IIT for Orissa being announced and then getting shifted. Following are some pointers on that.

A green field IIT in Orissa and a branch campus of IIT Kharagpur in Bhubaneswar had been decided in MHRD, so much so that On August 28th 2006, Union minister of state for Human Resources and Development Mr. M. Fatmi said the following Patna. (This was reported in Times of India on Aug 29th 2006, and available for everyone to see at
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1933613.cms and http://iitorissa.googlepages.com/PUmayfinallygetCentralvarsitystatus-.pdf )

Mr. Arjun Singh himslef had also given word to the CM regarding a branch campus of IIT Kharagpur in Bhubaneswar. His meeting with the CM had been reported on September 29 2006 as follows: The Chief Minister, Orissa, Shri Naveen Patnaik met the Union Minister for Human Resources development, Shri Arjun Singh today to discuss about the establishment of a campus of IIT, Kharagpur in Orissa. Shri Patnaik stated that the Government of Orissa have offered 300 acres of land next to Bhubaneswar city for setting up the campus and the State Government is fully committed to provide all necessary assistance for the institution. Since Orissa is fast emerging as a hub for industrial activities, an institution of the stature of IIT will provide the much needed boost to the efforts of the Government in providing support to these industries. The Union Minister, Shri Arjun Singh stated that the Central Government is positively inclined for setting up such an institution soon.
More points.

References:

Pioneer: Arjun hijacks plans for KBK varisty

2007-06-17T19:12:00.000-07:00

Pioneer and Tathya.in don’t mince words when they have articles with headlines “Arjun hijacks plans for KBK varsity” and “Arjun hijacks Naveen’s plans.” With permission from the author I am including the full Pioneer article below.

[If you are outraged by this you may write to various people (PM etc.; Orissa MPs; national editors; accredited media in Delhi) and send a fax to Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu ( Personal Secy: 09868501233 off: 011-23792469,23792470 Fax 011-23061695), the sole central minister from Orissa. May be he has a spine and he will take the letters to the PM and do a dharana there.]
Arjun hijacks plans for KBK varisty

Braja Kishore Mishra | Bhubaneswar

… Union Cabinet gives nod for setting up institution in MP

Union Minister for Human Resources and Development Arjun Singh has once again humiliated Orissa by hijacking its original plan to set up a Central Tribal University in the KBK region comprising the State’s undivided districts of Koaraput, Balangir and Kalahandi.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, while meeting the Minister in 2005 October (typo corrected), had mooted the idea of setting up a KBK central university. It was based on the theory of empowerment of tribals with higher education.

Patnaik had pleaded with the Central authorities that the concentration of tribals is the highest in KBK and their uplift hinged on education. He had pointed out that the literacy rate among the people of this region was much below 50 per cent.

He had argued that setting up a Central University in the region would go a long way in encouraging higher education among the tribal population. The university could also set up specialised centres for tribal development-related studies, as tribal development is one of the biggest challenges facing the country today.

While Arjun Singh had promised Patnaik in clear terms that his HRD Ministry would positively consider the proposal, the result is now otherwise. The Union Cabinet on Friday gave its approval for establishment of the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University at Amarkantak in Madhya Pradesh with Central Government funding.

It also approved introduction of the Indira Gandhi National Tribal University Bill, 2007 in Parliament. This will ensure establishment of a teaching and affiliating university for facilitating and promoting avenues of higher education and research facilities for the tribal population of the country.

Apart from affiliating the colleges, the university has the power to establish such number of its own regional centres in tribal areas as it may deem fit.

There will be at least one school in every regional centre to serve as a model school for the schools of the region, wherefrom the tribal students would be expected to join the local colleges, the off-campuses or the university. The objectives of the university include promoting studies and research in tribal art, culture, tradition, language, custom, medicinal systems, forest based economic activities, including special studies in the flora and fauna, and advancements in technologies relating to natural resources of the tribal areas.

Now, it is abundantly clear that Singh not only hijacked Patnaik’s idea but also saw to it that Orissa would never get a Central University in the KBK region on the lines of huge tribal concentration. Since the UPA is at the helm of affairs at the Centre, Singh is playing havoc with Orissa and the State is losing one after another national institutions to other States. While Minister of State of HRD MA Fatmi had announced a proposal to set up an IIT in Orissa, it was later shifted to Andhra Pradesh by Singh, on political considerations, said sources.

Patnaik sets agenda well ahead of polls

2007-06-10T14:35:00.000-07:00

BHUBANESWAR: Naveen Patnaik, the Orissa chief minister and the party supremo of ruling Biju Janata Dal has set the agenda for the state assembly elections well ahead of two years.

“The Centre’s Congress-led UPA government is the enemy of Orissa’’, thundered Patnaik, in his usual style of throwing surprises, at a meeting recently at Berhampur in Southern Orissa . Announcing that his party will launch a massive campaign against the Centre’s neglect to the state, he urged his party men to take the message to the grass root level.

Patnaik’s list of Centre’s neglect to the state includes shifting of IIT to Andhra Pradesh , delay in coal royalty revision, paltry flood assistance, slow progress in setting up the All India Medical Science campus at Bhubaneswar, and poor fund allocation for the rural electrification. To run down the UPA government, the chief minister promptly announced Biju Gram Jyoti Yojna to electrify the villages and hamlets with population below 300 as the Centre’s Rajiv Gramin Vidyut Yojna does not cover these villages. Not only that the state government provided Rs.50 crore in the budget 2007-08.

Patnaik turning to be a rebel was unthinkable. For, he was basking under the praise showered by the UPA’s Congress ministers like Shivraj Patil, Mani Sankar Iyer during the last three years. Such was the situation that many in Orissa were believing that Patnaik, a Doon school mate of Rajiv Gandhi, has a 10 Janpath connections.

His recent rhetoric, however, has put the Congress leaders in the state in a piquant situation. They are not a in position to attack Patnaik for the party’s Central ministers have given certificates to Naveen government in the recent past.

The opposition Congress in the state was virtually pushed to defensive. Its leaders tried to defend the UPA government’s role vis-a-vis the state government. The Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) president, Jaydev Jena,” The state has immensely benefited from the UPA government at the Centre”, says Jaydev Jena , the president of Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC). “ Naveen’s new stand against Centre is only to divert his government failure”, he adds. Jena listed out the largesse the Centre has given to the state to drive home his point . According to him, the UPA government has included the Long Term Action Plan for KBK region in the 11th Plan period, extended the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme extended to another five districts, and it has decided to set up institute of national importance like the National Institute for Science and Education Research (NISER) at Bhubaneswar and the National Institute of Handloom Technology (NIHT) at Bargarh. His list also includes the Centre’s initiative to start the work of the Paradip Petro-chemical complex.

JB Patnaik, who ruled the state nearly 15 years, also came out with statistics to defend the Congress government at the Centre. Pointing out that the state has got a higher annual plan outlay under the UPA government, he says that the plan outlay has been increased to Rs 5105 crore as against the state’s proposal for Rs 4850 crore in 2007-08.

In 2006-07, the same has been increased to Rs 3500 crore from Rs 3400 crore. The previous year, the outlay was increased to Rs 3000 crore from the proposed Rs 2800 crore by the Planning commission. Drawing a comparison with the NDA government, the former chief minister says that the state has received lesser plan outlay between 2001-02 and 2004-05. The plan outlay was cut to Rs 2500 crore from Rs.3300 crore in 2004-05 and to Rs 3200 crore from Rs.3300 in 2003-04.

In fact, the tone for the state Congress was set by the All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Orissa, V.Narayan Swami. He urged the Congressmen to attack the chief minister Naveen Patnaik. He gave a call for a massive campaign to highlight misrule and non-performance of the Naveen Patnaik government.

The state elections is due in May 2009. But, it is clear from now that the next elections will be fought on the issue of Centre’s attitude towards the state.

Tathya: Plz; no politics over IIT

2007-06-07T07:39:00.000-07:00

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.

Pioneer: Cong on backfoot over IIT issue

2007-06-01T15:04:00.000-07:00

Braja Kishore Mishra | Bhubaneswar

State Congress leaders are on a face saving mode. Failure on their part to impress the UPA Government at the Centre to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will have a humiliating effect on them, feel political analysts.

As the Budget Session of the State Assembly began on Friday, the leading Opposition party will face a determined Treasury Bench on various issues in general and that of IIT in particular, they say.

While the Gen X of the State is eagerly waiting for an IIT, the State Congress and its leaders have miserably failed to raise the issue and now some of its leaders are busy in patchworks.

After returning from New Delhi, PCC president Jayadev Jena said, "Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has agreed to visit Orissa soon as he has requested him to visit the State shortly and review several ongoing Centrally-sponsored welfare programmes."

There was a similar report about Union Minister of State for Rural Development Chandrasekhar Sahu meeting the Prime Minister and making him agree to come to the State to announce some new institutes such as Indian Institute of Handloom Technology.

A comparison of an IIT with the Indian Institute of Handloom Technology (IIHT) in terms of investment is now being made. An analyst pointed out that as per the budget of the Department of Textiles, the total money for human resource development is Rs 3 crore. It seems that this Rs 3 crore includes the Budget for four existing handloom institutes in the country and probably the new one proposed at Bargarh in Orissa. In contrast, there is Rs 80 crore towards the groundwork for three new IITs and Rs 1,553 crore for the existing seven IITs. So, the annual Budget of an existing IIT is Rs 222 crore, while for an IIHT is at best Rs 1 crore.

Similarly, it takes Rs 1,000 crore to Rs 4,000 crore to make an IIT, while a handloom institute would be costing Rs 5 crore to Rs10 crore at best. IITs offer B.Tech, M.Tech and Ph.Ds and IIHT offers only diplomas. There is a genuine and urgent need for a topnotch IIT-type technological institute in the State.

Just in and around Bhubaneswar, there are 30-plus engineering colleges, but it has been alleged that the faculties of most of them are sub-standard. An IIT-type institute will allow these engineering colleges to send their faculties for a higher degree, thus having a huge impact on these colleges and their students. So, the State desperately and immediately needs an IIT or an equivalent institute, argue knowledgeable circles.

Sitting at a distance of thousands of miles in the USA and other countries, the non-resident Oriyas (NROs) impressed upon the BJD and BJP MPs to raise the issue of IIT in Parliament. The MPs of both parties and their NDA partners boycotted Lok Sabha recently in support of an IIT in the State. But Congress MPs both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha kept mum.

The other day when Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly JB Patnaik was asked about IIT, he said that the State Government is not serious about the issue as it has not sent any formal proposal to open an IIT in the Centre. But what prohibits him to raise the issue and impress the Prime Minister for an IIT, his critics ask.

This weakness of the Congress has not only made a serious dent in its image among the educated youth of the State but given an added advantage to the ruling coalition to ride a roughshod on the Opposition party during the month-long Assembly session, feel political observers.

Tathya.in: IIT issue to hit Congress

2007-05-31T10:23:00.000-07:00

Bhubaneswar:31/May/2007
Orissa Congress leaders have no face to save.

Failure on the part of the State Congress leaders to impress upon the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) Government at the Centre to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) will have a humiliating effect on them, feel political analysts.

As the Budget Session of the Orissa Legislative Assembly (OLA) begins on June 1, the leading opposition party will face a determined Treasury Bench on various issues in general and IIT in particular,they say.

While the Gen X of the state is eagerly waiting for an IIT, the State Congress Party and its leaders have miserably failed to raise the issue of IIT and now some of its leaders are busy in patch works.

To the utter amazement of youth top leaders are busy in whoodwinking the people.

After returning from New Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) President Jaydev Jena said “Prime Minister (PM) Dr Man Mohan Singh has agreed to visit Orissa soon.

Jena requested PM to visit Orissa shortly and review several ongoing Centrally-sponsored welfare program in the state to which the latter agreed."

There was a similar report about Union Minister of State (MOS) for Rural Development Chandrasekhar Sahu meeting the PM and Dr. Singh agreeing to come to Orissa.

And that he may announce some new institutes such as Indian Institute of Handloom Technology.

Lets compare an IIT with the Indian Institute of Handloom Technology (IIHT) in terms of investment, said an analyst.

As per the budget of the Department of Textiles the total money for human resource development is Rs 3 crores.

It seems like this Rs. 3 crore includes the budget for 4 existing handloom institutes and probably as well as the new one proposed in Bargarh.

In contrast there is Rs. 80 crores towards the groundwork for 3 new IITs and Rs. 1553 crores for the exisiting 7 IITs .

So annual budget of an existing IIT is Rs. 222 crores while for an IIHT (Indian Institute of Handloom Technology) it is at best Rs. 1 crore.

Similarly it takes Rs. 1000-4000 crores to make an IIT and for an handloom institute would be costing Rs. 5-10 crores at best.

IITs offer B.tech. M.Tech and Ph.Ds and IIHT offers only diplomas.

There is a genuine and urgent need for a top-notch IIT type technological institute.

Just in and around Bhubaneswar we have 30 plus engineering colleges, but it has been alleged that their faculty is sub-standard.

An IIT type institute will allow these engineering colleges to send their faculty for a higher degree thus having a huge impact on these colleges and their students.

So Orissa desperately and immediately need an IIT or an equivalent institute.

Sitting at a distance of thousands of miles in USA and other countries the Non Resident Oriyas (NRO)s impressed upon the Member of Parliament (MP)of BJD and BJP to raise the issue of IIT in the Parliament.

MPs of both the parties and NDA partners boycotted Lok Sabha recently in support of an IIT in Orissa.

But Congress MPs both in Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha kept mum.

The other day when the Opposition Leader J B Patnaik was asked about IIT he said the State Government is not serious about the issue as they have not sent any formal proposal to open an IIT to the Centre.

But what prohibits you to raise the issue and impress the PM for an IIT, he engaged himself in the blame game.

The point is abundantly clear that the myopic and timid leaders of the Congress are not in a position to put their weight on the central leadership for an emotional and justified demand like an IIT.

This weakness of Congress has not only made a serious dent of their declining image among the educated youth of the state but also gives an added advantage to the ruling coalition to ride roughshod on them during the month long session the House, feel political pundits.

UPA discrimination on Orissa : No IIT, no fund

2007-05-29T06:14:00.000-07:00

Organiser.

UPA discrimination on Orissa

No IIT, no fund
From Sanjaya Jena, Bhubaneswar

“The recent reply of Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development on the floor of the Parliament regarding establishment of IITs in the country has come as a shock to us.”

The backout of the union government from its promise to set up an Indian Institute of Technology in Orissa has resulted in widespread protests in the state. Social organisations and political parties—especially the ruling BJP and BJD—are contemplating to organise statewide protest rallies in the state after the ongoing Parliament session is over.

“The union government, which had earlier backed out from many of its promises, has once again betrayed the people of Orissa by changing its mind on setting up an IIT in the state. We will certainly protest this kind of injustice meted out to the state,” BJP national secretary Dharmendra Pradhan said.

The BJD and BJP Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha members staged a dharna in front of the Parliament to register their protest.

It is worthwhile mentioning here that while replying to a calling attention motion moved by MPs from Orissa demanding an Indian Institute of Technology, Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeshwari said that the union government had approved three IITs for Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan. The new IITs were decided on recommendations of the Planning Commission and Prime Minister’s Scientific Advisory Council, the minister said.

“The union minister of state for Human Resource Development Mohammed Fatmi had said in August, 2006 in Patna that an Indian Institute of Technology would be set up in Orissa. Then, why was the decision changed?” Shri Tripathy asked.

However, minister Smt Purandeshwari denied that Shri Fatmi had made such a statement. “Setting up a new IIT would cost over Rs 1,000 crore,” she said in Parliament, adding, the government had never decided to set up such an institute in Orissa.

Dissatisfied with Smt Purandeshwari’s reply, the BJP and BJD members staged a walkout.

Taking up the demand for the setting-up of an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Orissa, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Meanwhile, BJP has taken to streets with a dharna staged before Raj Bhawan alleging central apathy.

In a letter dispatched to the Prime Minister, Shri Patnaik urged the Centre to ensure setting-up of an IIT in the state during the 11th Five-Year Plan.

“The recent reply of Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development on the floor of the Parliament regarding establishment of IITs in the country has come as a shock to us,” Shri Patnaik said in the letter.

He further said that there was a proposal to open a branch of IIT, Kharagpur, in Bhubaneswar for which the state government had promised a land of nearly 300 acres. It appears that even this proposal has been turned down, he added.

The recent decision of government of India to locate IITs in states which already had got the benefit of many central institutes indicates that objective criteria has not been followed in deciding the locations of the three IITs, Shri Patnaik argued.

Pramila Bahidar repeats IIT demand in Rajya Sabha: Janamukha

2007-05-28T22:14:00.000-07:00

Janamukha, May 28, 2007

PM to visit Orissa again soon: we need to act fast

2007-05-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

Dear all:

Pragativadi reports http://pragativadi.com/250507/other.htm#4 :

"PM to visit Orissa Bhubaneswar: Prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh
has agreed to visit Orissa soon. The consent of the prime minister
came during his meeting with the OPCC president Jayadev Jena in New
Delhi on Thursday. At the meeting, Jena requested Singh to visit
Orissa shortly and review several ongoing Centrally-sponsored
welfare programmes in the state to which the latter agreed."

There was a similar report about minister Chandrasekhar Sahu meeting
the PM and the PM agreeing to come to Orissa and that he may announce some new institutes. (See http://www.orissawatch.org/?p=187)

Chandrasekhar babu's contact:

http://esuvidha.nic.in/orissa /orissadirectory/full_list.asp ?page=73&individualname=&rowcount=1 http://rural.nic.in/telephonelist.asp

http://www.orissawatch.org/?p=187

This reminds me of last year when there was similar news. At that time we
made it clear to Orissa Congress and the PM that they can not give Orissa
an inferior institute instead of the NIS/IISER. Perhaps that had some bearing on the PM explicitly stating that NISER will be at par with an IISER.

We need to do the same thing now. We need to convey to the Orissa Congress and the PM that we are not stupid and gullible. We will not be swayed by losing an IIT of 1000-4000 crores and getting some other institute worth 5 crore.

Whatever institutes the PM declares in Orissa, at least one of them
must be at par with an IIT. Otherwise, it will be clear to us what the PM and Orissa congress think of Oriyas: as stupid people and coolies. The people of Orissa will not take such label kindly and Congress will then have to pay for it during future elections.

My appeal: Please use whatever means to convey this to the PM and Orissa Congress biggies.

best regards
Chitta

Pioneer: Naveen may declare war on Centre at rally in Ganjam

2007-05-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

Naveen may declare war on Centre at rally in Ganjam

Santanu Barad \| Kendrapara
BJD to increase cadre base to 40 lakh by 2008 Biju Janata Dal supremo Naveen Patnaik appears to have declared war against the UPA Government at the Centre from his home district of Ganjam, on May 27, if the preparatory meeting of his party leaders of the district, including Energy Minister Surya Narayan Patro, held on Tuesday, is any indication.

Patnaik's scheduled visit to the district has been finalised and he is going to address a huge gathering of the party cadre, including newly elected Sarpanch, Panchayat Samiti members, block chairpersons, Zilla Parishad members and district MLAs at the Khallikote College stadium.

At least 5,000 workers from the grassroots level are expected to attend the meeting, in which Patnaik may urge them to fight against the apathetic attitude of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre. A couple of Ministers are also expected to attend the public meeting, which is going to be held for the first time after the recent panchayat elections.

The preparatory meeting of the party leaders, attended by Minister Patro, was held keeping in mind the importance of the visit of the party supremo. A committee has been formed to look after the details of the public meeting, and the party leaders have been entrusted with various work to ensure that it is a success.

It was evident from the discussion held among the party leaders at the Circuit House that the party is preparing to raise its cadre base to at least 30 lakh by June-end this year and is targeting 40 lakh by 2008.

Various issues may be raised at the Patnaik's public rally against the apathetic attitude, negligence and discrimination of the Central Government towards the State in matters such as the establishment of an IIT. The party cadre would launch a movement in the rural areas where they would create a public opinion among the people about the "anti-people" policy of the UPA Government.

Apart from creating public opinion against the Centre, the BJD cadre would try to generate a favourable opinion for the party by informing the people about the successes and achievements of the BJD-BJP alliance Government during the last seven years.

It may be recalled that Naveen Patnaik, while addressing a meeting of the party's elected block chairpersons and vice-chairpersons in Bhubaneswar earlier this week, had come down heavily on the UPA Government and had declared that the State would no longer approach the Centre with a begging bowl for funds for its genuine requirements and that the State would give a fitting reply to the Centre's attitude.

Janashakti demands IIT in Orissa

2007-05-24T01:13:00.000-07:00

Janashakti to launch stir against Centre’s apathy
The New Indian Express, Thursday May 24 2007 13:06 IST

BHUBANESWAR: The Bharatiya Janashakti Party’s State unit has decided to launch a Statewide agitation against the UPA Government at the Centre for ignoring the State Government demand for an IIT.

Addressing media persons here on Wednesday, State unit president Aurobinda Dhali said the change of stand of the UPA Government at the eleventh hour by denying Orissa an IIT is deplorable. The State which is poised for rapid industrialisation deserves an IIT.

Besides, the State has hardly any institute of national importance while other States have many, he added.

Dhali also flayed the Centre for not providing funds for the Netaji Subas Bose All India Institute of Medical Sciences for which the State Government had already allotted land. He blamed the previous NDA Government for not making any budgetary provision for the six AIIMS after making the announcement.

The party has decided to organise a rally in the city to protest the Centre’s apathy to the State and send a memorandum to the President through the Governor soon. District-level rallies will also be organised, he said.

IIT: NSUI plans stir reports The New Indian Express

2007-05-23T03:46:00.000-07:00

BHUBANESWAR: The National Students Union of India (NSUI) on Tuesday announced to launch a statewide agitation, demanding establishment of an IIT in the State.

Addressing the media, all India General Secretary of the NSUI Ashok Basaya said the organisation would take up the issue with the central leadership of Congress.

IIT in Orissa: Plan of action

2007-05-20T22:11:00.001-07:00

Dear all:

Thank you for all that you have already done for the IIT in Orissa cause. We are chronicling the efforts and happenings at http://iitorissa.org and http://orissawatch.org

Based on various news reports following is the current situation -in a nutshell-with respect to getting an IIT in Orissa.

The media is regularly covering the issue and the general people in streets have become aware of the issue of IIT as well as the central neglect/injustice/discrimination against Orissa. http://iitorissa.org http://orissawatch.org
The Orissa MPs, polticians, and the CM are all frequently mentioning the IIT issue as well as the central neglect/injustice/discrimination against Orissa.
http://iits-11thplan.blogspot.com/2007/05/naveen-slams-centre-for-ignoring-orissa.html http://iits-11thplan.blogspot.com/2007/05/bjd-calls-for-economic-blockade-against.html http://iits-11thplan.blogspot.com/2007/05/arjun-confused-naveen-on-iit-issue.html
The congress people in Orissa have become aware of the importance of these issues and the congress minister Chandrasekhar Sahu has discussed it with the PM and the PM seems to be suggesting that he will announce some institutes in a few months when he comes to Orissa. http://iits-11thplan.blogspot.com/2007/05/cong-counters-naveens-charges-point-by.html http://iits-11thplan.blogspot.com/2007/05/lalit-patnaiks-report-on-delhi-visit-by.html http://iits-11thplan.blogspot.com/2007/05/chandrasekhar-sahu-meets-pm-on-iit.html

With that background we can do the following:

Write/call/email to Orissa MPs and convery to them that they should meet the PM and make a case for an IIT (and more) to him. http://iits.11thplan.googlepages.com/contact2

Write/call/email the Orissa CM and convey to them that he should meet the PM and make a case for an IIT (and more) to him. http://iits.11thplan.googlepages.com/contact2

Write/call/email Congress leaders from Orissa, especially minister Chandrasekhar Sahu and convey to him that we are not stupid; a 1000-4000 crore IIT can not be substituted by 2-3 small 2-3 crore type institutes or institutes (like IIIT made via PPP, or central university type funding to one university in each state) that all states will be getting anyway. Note each state is supposed to get a IIIT and one university in each state is supposed to become a central university equivalent. So those don't count. WE NEED AN IIT or AN IIT EQUIVALENT. This message must be conveyed to the PM directly or via Mr. Chandrasekhar Sahu. http://esuvidha.nic.in/orissa/orissadirectory/full_list.asp?page=73&individualname=&rowcount=1 http://rural.nic.in/telephonelist.asp

Spread this message to other Oriyas.

best regards
Chitta

Cong counters Naveen�s charges point by point. ... NOT!

2007-05-20T16:56:00.000-07:00

New Indian Express article (begin)

BHUBANESWAR: Congress on Sunday strongly reacted to the charges made by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik that it has neglected the State always and is an enemy of Orissa.

Criticising the State Government for its �all-round failure�, president of the Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) Jaydeb Jena said for the first time cotton farmers have committed suicide in the State.

Alleging that the criticism was only a ploy to divert the Government�s failure during the past seven years, Jena asserted that the State has benefited immensely from the UPA Government at the Centre.

Listing the steps taken by the Centre in different sectors for the development of the State, Jena said the KBK scheme has been included under the Eleventh Five Year Plan and a special annual allocation of Rs 250 crore made for the region.

The Centre has also included 24 out of 30 districts in NREGS. Countering charges that the UPA Government has neglected the State in the education sector, Jena said a decision has been taken to set up the National Institute of Handloom Technology (NIHT) at Bargarh and NISER in Bhubaneswar.

The UPA Government has also not neglected Orissa in the industrial sector which is evident from the initiative taken by the Centre to start work of the Paradip refinery project, he said.

New Indian Express article (end)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My counter:

Although RTI and NREGS are two good initiatives by the UPA government, its actions
with respect to the education sector in Orissa is downright dismal and discriminatory.
First NISER was announced to compensate for the shifting of NIS that was decided during
the NDA government.

Next the Instutite of Handloom Technology will have a budget of a few crores at most
(or less) while budgets of IITs are 1000-4000 crores. IITs offer B.tech. M.Tech and Ph.Ds
and Handloom Technology institute offers only diplomas.

So Does Mr. Jena and his congress party think that people of Orissa are stupid and are
coolies that they won't know the difference between a 1000-4000 crore IIT and
a (at best) 1-2 crore Handloom Technology institute?

Mr. Jena, by his statement of equating an (at best) 1-2 crore handloom technology
institute with an IIT is digging the grave of Congress in Orissa.

Also, Does Mr. Jena know how to read? If so can you please ask him to find
Orissa in the list of 23 institutes that the MHRD has so far announced in India.

Here is the list that appeared in Samaja and Sambada.

IISER Kolkata, West Bengal (1)
IISER Pune, Maharashtra (1)
IISER Mohali, Punjab (1)
IISER in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (1)
IISER in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala (1)
IIT in Andhra Pradesh (1)
IIT in Rajasthan (1)
IIT in Bihar (1)
IIM at Shillong, Meghalaya (1)
SPA in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh (2)
SPA in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (2)
Upgradation of Bengal Engineering and Sc U to an IIT clone (IIEST), West Bengal (2)
Upgradation of Andhra Univ Engineering College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (3)
Upgradation of Osmania Univ Engg College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (4)
Upgradation of IT BHU to IIT clone (IIEST), Uttar Pradesh (1)
Upgradation of Cochin Univ of Sc and Tech to IIT clone (IIEST), Kerala (2)
IIIT Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu (1)
Allahbad University made to a Central University, Uttar Pradesh (2)
Manipur University made to a Central University, Manipur (1)
Arunachal Pradesh university made to a Central University, Arunachal Pradesh (1)
Tripura university made to a Central University, Tripura (1)
New Central University in Sikkim, Sikkim (1)
CIEFL Hyderabad made to a central university, Andhra Pradesh (5)

Mr. Jena: If you have any sense you should run to Delhi and tell the
congress leaders that people of Orissa are no longer going to
tolerate such discrimination and if congress follows the path it is taking
vis-a-vis Orissa, its future in Orissa is doomed.

sincerely,
Chitta Baral

ps -- Please note that as per http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2007-08/eb/sbe91.pdf (5.11)
the budget of the Dept. of Textiles the total money for Human Resource Development is Rs 3 crores. It seems like this 3 crores includes the budget for 4 existing handloom institutes and probably as well as the new one proposed in Bargarh.

In contrast as per http://indiabudget.nic.in/ub2007-08/eb/sbe57.pdf there is 80 crores towards the groundwork for 3 new IITs (line 75) and 1553 crores for the exisiting 7 IITs (line 50).

So annual budget of an exisiting IIT is at 222 crores while for an IIHT (Indian Inst of Handloom Technology) it is at best 1 crore.

Please now compare what Orissa is losing (an IIT) and what it may be getting (an inst. of handloom technology) and how Mr. Jaydeb Jena is trying to convince us that they are equivalent.

Naveen slams Centre for ignoring Orissa

2007-05-20T14:37:00.000-07:00

New Delhi: Slamming the Centre's repeated negligence towards Orissa’s poverty-stricken areas, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik said on Sunday that poverty is Orissa's "enemy number one".

Expressing his displeasure on the Centre's allocation of a "paltry" Rs 16 crore for rural electrification in Orissa, Patnaik said the state government was contemplating to have its own programme for rural electrification.

"A new scheme would be announced soon for the purpose," he said. The state government had earlier announced two such schemes, one for the tribal people of the KBK (Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput) region and another for the poor living in the coastal region.

"It is poverty which is the stumbling block before the state's growth," he was quoted by PTI. Patnaik has directed the panchayat functionaries in the state to work for the people with whatever funds are available at the moment. He also asked grass-root level leaders to create awareness in rural areas about the developmental activities undertaken by the state government.

"Tell the villagers how the Congress-led UPA government has been adopting step-motherly attitude towards Orissa," he said adding the people should be aware as to how Congress leaders at the Centre have been "ignoring" Orissa's interest.

Bringing out a list before the rural leaders, Patnaik said the state government's repeated plea for setting up an IIT or an IIM had been ignored by the UPA government. "The rural people should know how the Centre behaves towards Orissa," he said.

To buttress his argument, the BJD supremo said the state's repeated demand for revision of royalty of minerals, including coal, had been ignored by the Central government.

Impact of a top-notch engineering college on its neighborhood

2007-05-19T15:19:00.000-07:00

Earlier we had argued how a top-notch engineering college such an IIT has a huge impact on the area where it is located in. Following is an article providing more concrete examples of that.

Tech cos setting up R&D centres near engineering colleges SOBHA
MENON

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, MAY 20, 2007 02:01:09 AM] NEW DELHI:
Don’t be surprised if you start seeing quite a buzz around cities
with reputed engineering colleges. And an increase in prosperity
too, for that matter. There are more and more tech companies looking
to setting up their R&D centres close to engineering colleges in
places like Manipal, Udipi, Trichy, Madurai, Udipi and Kharagpur.

Sankalp Semiconductors, a two-year-old start-up with about 45
engineers working on analog and digital mixed signal technologies,
operates right from the BVB Engineering College premises in Hubli.
“Besides Hubli’s colleges, we recruit from campuses in Nanded,
Berhampur in Orissa and Durgapur. So we are planning to set up our
next R&D facility at Durgapur or Kharagpur,” says Vivek Pawar, CEO,
Sankalp Semiconductors.

There’s IT services company, Able Technologies too, that’s operated
out of Dharwar in Karnataka for the last two years. “I source most
of my engineers from colleges in north Karnataka, so I don’t see any
reason to live in a tier one city,” says Jagdish Hiremath, CEO, Able
Technologies.

Tier one cities with their problems of increasing operating costs,
conjestion and pollution, just fails to stack up against these
towns. “You can’t give much thought to innovation and creating IP if
you spend most of your time travelling — which is what I was doing
in Bangalore,” says Mr Pawar about his decision to move lock,stock
and barrel to Hubli two years ago.

Says Poornima Shenoy, president, Indian Semiconductors Association:
“Engineering colleges are indeed turning to be quite a draw for
semiconductor startups. And in many states, the government is doing
its best by setting up incubation facilities and providing good
infrastructure.” The success of companies such as Robosoft, a
software company in Udipi, and Karmic (Karnataka Microelectronic
Design Centre), a semiconductor solutions company in Manipal, could
also be a reason for companies feeling more confident about
operating from smaller towns and cities.

And no, employees too don’t mind leaving big cities to live in
places like Manipal and Udipi. “It’s the work atmosphere that we
provide here that matters to them — and so we have people who have
come from Uttaranchal, Rajasthan and Manipur to work with us here in
Udipi,” a Robosoft official said. In fact, there are many who would
like return to their hometowns if only they had the job opportunity
there, says Mr Hiremath, who returned from the US to settle in
Dharwar. The tech boom’s apparently having a ripple effect.

Dharitri: BJD calls for economic blockade against center

2007-05-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

The complete IIT debate in LokSabha on May 8th 2007

2007-05-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

http://164.100.24.208/ls/dailydeb/dailydebmain.asp

CALLING ATTENTION

Need to set up an Indian Institute of Technology in Orissa

1408 hours

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): Sir, I call the attention of the Minister of Human Resource Development to the following matter of urgent public importance and request that he may make a statement thereon:

“Need to set up an Indian Institute of Technology in Orissa as proposed in the Eleventh Five Year Plan and agreed to by the Government earlier.”

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Now, hon. Minister, Shrimati D. Purandeswari.

… (Interruptions)

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): Sir, where is the Cabinet Minister? This is most unfortunate. … (Interruptions) This shows the seriousness of the Government. … (Interruptions) Where is the Cabinet Minister? … (Interruptions) This is a regular business. … (Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Please listen to me.

… (Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Please listen to me.

… (Interruptions)

The Speaker has allowed her.

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI): Sir, I thank you. I also thank my colleagues for giving me this opportunity.

Presently, there are seven Indian Institutes of Technology in the country which are IIT Kharagpur, IIT Bombay, IIT Madras, IIT Delhi, IIT Guwahati, IIT Roorkee and IIT Kanpur.

Based on the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Higher Education had sent a proposal to the Planning Commission to set up three new Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) in the country during the 11^th Five Year Plan. After receiving the ‘in-principle’ approval of the Planning Commission to the proposal and based on the recommendations of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, it was proposed by the Ministry to set up three new IITs in the States of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan. … (Interruptions) Let me complete.

The Ministry is in the process of deciding the exact locations of IITs in these three States in consultation with the respective State Governments. The 11^th Five Year Plan has not yet been finalized. However, it has never been agreed to by the Government to establish an IIT in Orissa during the 11^th Five Year Plan.

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): Sir, this is most unfortunate. The Cabinet Minister is deliberately remains absent from the proceedings of the House. However, hon. Speaker has allowed. I am not saying anything on that. … (Interruptions)

He is worried and hurried. That is the difficulty. He is more interested in politics than the affairs of his own Ministry. This is interesting.

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Please address the Chair.

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): The reply given by the Minister is also very casual and misleading. The people of Orissa have not forgotten and recovered from the shock and insult that has been inflicted upon them by the motivated decision of the UPA Government with regard to the shifting of the National Institute of Science, about which we have discussed in this House a number of times, from Bhubaneswar to other place. Now, again the decision of the HRD Ministry, Department of Higher Education of the Government of India, for the change of location of the original proposal of establishment of a new IIT in Orissa to other State has added salt to its wound.

Sir, this shocking news has created great discontentment in the State. The students, teachers, intellectuals in particular and public in general are very much dissatisfied. This is happening under the UPA Government. Deliberately it is ignoring the cause of Orissa. They are deciding the location of establishment of the institute by political motivation and deliberately changing the location time and again. In the case of National Institute of Science also they had changed the original place and shifted it to the other State. Although the NDA Government took a decision to set up the National Institute of Science at Bhubaneswar, Orissa yet they have shifted it to other State ignoring the decision of the previous Government. Now also, in the case of IIT, as per the reply of the hon. Minister, the Government is taking the plea of the Scientific Advisor to the Prime Minister. I am not able to understand it.

The Scientific Advisor to Prime Minister has advised him to set up IITs but he has not suggested at which place they should be set up. The Government has decided to establish three new green field Indian Institute of Technology during 11^th Five Year Plan and the Planning Commission has agreed to it. The Planning Commission decided earlier that it will be decided in three States and Orissa was one among them. It was not the thinking of the Planning Commission alone. The Minister of State of HRD, my good friend, Shri Fatmi is sitting here. On 28^th August, 2006 he had announced in Patna that one of these locations would be Orissa. I am not able to understand it now. I have the paper cuttings with me. He had announced on 28^th August, 2006 in Patna that one of the locations would be Orissa. The State Government had also agreed to provide 300 acres of land for the purpose. If nothing of the sort was decided how could the State Government agree to offer 300 acres of land? It was decided earlier and subsequently the institute was shifted to Andhra Pradesh. Accidentally the hon. Minister who is now replying also belongs to Andhra Pradesh. I do not blame her.

It is the responsibility of the Ministry and the Cabinet Minister is absent. We do not have any objection in giving IITs to other States, be it Andhra Pradesh. Two engineering colleges with M.tech. and research facilities were allowed to be established in Andhra Pradesh by the HRD Ministry but Orissa does not have any such facility. This is our demand. When the Planning Commission has decided that Orissa will be one of the locations for this IIT what was the necessity to shift it to other State? We do not mind Andhra Pradesh getting the institute but why should it be shifted from our State? Why should Orissa be ignored? We do not have any IIT.

We have the maximum engineering colleges, of course private colleges, in the Eastern part of the country but an IIT is necessary to improve the faculty in research and PhD. We are ready to provide land. Our Chief Minister has written a letter to the Prime Minister requesting it to locate an IIT in Orissa. What is the difficulty in that? Why are they so much interested in poking their nose in national politics? Is this a Union Government or a State Government? I charge that the Ministry of HRD is functioning like a panchayat.

They are not functioning like a Union Ministry. So, the Union Minister should consider all the parts of the country as parts of the Union. They should not consider it on political basis. So, that is the difficulty which is shocking for us. Due to this, the people of Orissa are very much aggrieved. I have already told that there is the highest concentration of engineering colleges. So, this Ph.D. Degree would significantly help in improving the faculty. But we have been ignored.

I would also like to submit that the Governing Body of IIT, Kharagpur has also approved a full-fledged campus to be set up in Bhubaneswar. That is also one of our demands. The IIT, Kharagpur has requested the Ministry of Human Resource Development to do this by upgrading the existing extension centre entailing an investment of Rs.800 crore to Rs.900 crore. This proposal is also waiting the clearance from the Ministry of Human Resource Development. What has happened to this? IIT, Kharagpur has requested for this and the State Government has also agree to give land free of cost for this project. So, I want to know from the hon. Minister what is the real position now. I would like to know whether one green field IIT will be located in Orissa. As regards the proposal of IIT, Kharagpur for the extension campus at Bhubaneswar, we would like to know whether that is also under the consideration of the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Are you giving approval for this project? I would request the Minister to reply to this.

It is also regrettable that Orissa finds itself at the bottom of per capita funding from the Ministry of Human Resource Development. This Ministry is funding all the States but the per capita investment of the Ministry is the lowest in Orissa. What is the difficulty? Why will Orissa be ignored? Is Orissa not part of this country? Why is this discrimination? I would like to know whether the Ministry of Human Resource Development is approving the IIT, Kharagpur and also giving an IIT to Orissa or not. Some how or the other this help will improve the imbalance and the position of Orissa. It will improve the situation to some extent. At present, the investment by the Ministry is the lowest in Orissa. So, if one green field IIT is provided to Orissa and the proposal of IIT, Kharagpur, is approved, then to some extent we would match with other States. There are seven IITs in the country. We have the concentration of private engineering colleges. Therefore, we should be provided one IIT and it was rightly decided by the Planning Commission. But I do not know why the Ministry of Human Resource Development is interfering and why they are shifting it from one State to another. This is a nasty politics. If the Government of India will not reverse its present decision of not establishing a green field IIT in Orissa during 11^th Five Year Plan, it will be unfair. It will create alarming situation in the State. Now the State is burning. The students are agitating. I think some day they would come to Delhi to demonstrate. So, what is happening? The students, the intellectuals, the teachers and the public all are agitating. This Union Government is unfair to the State of Orissa. They are doing all the illegal works… (Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Nothing should be recorded except the speech of Shri Tripathy.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): Sir, it is also learnt that five new IIMs would be established during the 11^th Five Year Plan. There are already IIMs in different States but we do not have a single IIM in Orissa. There is not a single central institution in Orissa. There is no IIM. So, when they are deciding to set up five new IIMs during the 11^th Five Year Plan, why Orissa should not be chosen for this? The maximum number of engineering institutions, technical institutes and IT educational institutes are there in Orissa, the eastern part of the country.

So, why would the Government not decide about allotting one IIM in the State of Orissa? I would like to request the Government to consider setting up one greenfield IIT, one IIM in Orissa and also consider giving an extension of the IIT campus at Kharagpur in Bhubaneswar in the State of Orissa. If these demands are not considered favourably by the Union Government, then the people of the State would be very unhappy and the situation would not be any good.

We are for the unity of the country. We are working for the unity of the country. The contribution of the people of Orissa has been the maximum towards maintaining unity of this nation. If the State of Orissa will decide otherwise, then half of the country would be languishing in darkness. The hon. Members of this august House should know this. We are providing coal and iron ore to all parts of this country, but unfortunately in our State, we do not have any industry. If the Union Government would continue to deprive this, then naturally the State would feel isolated from the mainstream. The Naxalites are very active in the State of Orissa and they would take advantage of the situation. The Union Government seems to be conducting themselves like a Panchayat and they are following a discriminatory policy. If such an attitude does not change, then the miscreants will provoke the people and the unity of the country could be threatened. We are always for the unity of the country. The contribution of the people of Orissa to freedom struggle has been immense. We were the last State to become a part of the colonial rule… (Interruptions) The hon. Member does not seem to be aware of history… (Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Nothing, except the speech of Shri Braja Kishore Tripathy, would go on record.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): Sir, we were the last State to go under the control of the British rule. We fought against the British rule. There were many people from Orissa who were hanged by the British for participation in the freedom movement. There is not a proper reflection of those sacrifices in the history. We have not been able to pay them their due respect. Therefore, the contribution of the people of Orissa in the freedom struggle has been maximum.

Therefore, I would like to request the hon. Member to consider these demands and not wound the sentiments of the people of the State. There should not be any provocation which may lead to a serious crisis of law and order. The Government should understand the sentiments of the people of the State and consider favourably setting up of one IIT, one IIM and also giving extension of campus of IIT Kharagpur at Bhubneswar. This is the only request I would like to make to the hon. Minister. If these are not considered, then maybe, in the near future there could be agitations and the situation may go out of control.

SHRI B. MAHTAB (CUTTACK): A Calling Attention has been listed in today’s Order Paper. The hon. Minister of State for Human Resource Development, in response to this, has laid a written statement on the Table of the House. This was also listed in the first part of the Budget Session but due to the House getting adjourned for recess, this issue could not be discussed then.

It is an emotive issue for all the Oriya people, not only resident Oriyas but also Non-Resident Oriyas. This is our experience that everyday, through the net, we are receiving a large number of mails about this issue – be it Shri Jual Oram or other Members from the Rajya Sabha, we, the Members representing the State of Orissa, have been receiving a large number of mails through the net on this issue.

But why is Orissa being denied justice? Why is this United Progressive Alliance Government denying justice to Orissa? What reply do we have for this question? Should we say that because a large number of non-UPA members have been elected to this House that the UPA Government is denying justice to us? Should we say that because we do not have a Cabinet Minister in UPA, Orissa is being denied justice? Should we say that Orissa is not being recognized by the leaders of the UPA and hence it is denied justice? What should we say? What is the reply? … (Interruptions) The reply is because they stood with Indians, they stood for the cause of Orissa..… (Interruptions) What is the reason that the UPA which is in power for the last three years is denying justice to Orissa? … (Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Nothing should be recorded except the speech of Shri Mahtab.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

SHRI B. MAHTAB (CUTTACK): It is not only that it is denied justice only for the last three years. Since the 1960s, the 1970s, the 1980s and the first part of 1990s, Orissa had been persistently denied justice.

I would like to ask a simple question to the Minister and I would expect a reply to that question. How much investment has been made in Orissa for human resource development? How much investment has the Ministry of HRD made in Orissa during the last Ten Plans? How many Central Institutes, leave out IIT which is the issue to which we have called your attention, have been established in Orissa? Our leader, Shri Tripathy, has also mentioned about IIMs other than IITs. I would like the hon. Minister to go through the records on a commitment made in this House. In the late 1980s, our former President who was the then Minister during the tenure of Shri Rajiv Gandhi had made a commitment in this House to a Congress Member who was representing the constituency which I am representing today. At that time, she was the wife of the Chief Minister. To her, the then Minister, Shri Narayanan had made a commitment in this House that when triple IITs will be established, it will be established in Orissa. Now we are in 2007. More than four or five Governments have ruled but what has happened to the IITs? If we raise this issue, somebody will start saying that should we not take the responsibility. What happened to that triple IIT establishment? Have you fulfilled the commitment made in this House? Or do you say that other Ministries have not done it and that is why, you also have not done it? Can you shift your responsibility like this? How much money have you invested in the State of Orissa during the last 60 years? I am not asking this question to any political party or a political alliance. I am asking this question to this House, to this nation.

Why has Orissa been denied investment from the Central Budget, especially from the Ministry of Human Resource Development? How many institutes have you created? Only two Institutes of the Ministry of Agriculture have been established. One is Central Rice Research Institute, established in 1948 and the other one is Fisheries Central Institute, established in eighties. Other than these two Institutes, which are related to the Ministry of Agriculture, no other institute has been established. These Institutes have nothing to do with the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Of course, Regional Engineering College was established after Rourkela Steel Plant came up, after Hirakud Dam came up.

A large number of students from Orissa go to cities in other States for technical education, like Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi and very few of them go abroad. Is it not the responsibility of the Central Government to provide higher technical education to the people of Orissa at an affordable cost? Why should we have to come before you and plead? Knowing full well that Orissa is in the bottom of income index, is it not the responsibility of the Centre to do that?

You have enshrined “socialism” in the Constitution. Is it not the responsibility of the Centre to do that? A very fashionable word is being used in the last few months, that is “inclusive growth.” Is it not the responsibility of the Centre to see the overall growth of the country? If some people flare up in North-East, it immediately draws the attention of the Government; if something happens in Western front, that draws the attention of the Government. … (Interruptions)

The Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister was set up and was given a mandate. What was the mandate? Was the mandate to find out how many IITs should be established? Or was the mandate to find out whether there is requirement to expand the number of IITs? I would like the hon. Minister to educate me and the House. As per my information, the mandate to Scientific Advisory Council was, other than the IITs that were established in the sixties and another one later on, is there a necessity to have more IITs in this country? Why was it restricted to three? Who restricted it to three? I would like to have an answer. How was this confined to only three? Was it done by Planning Commission? I would like to know that. If the recommendation was, one in the East, one in the West, one in the South, who decided that one should go to Bihar, one should go to Andhra Pradesh; and the third one would go to Rajasthan. Who decided that it will not go to Karnataka, Kerala or Orissa? At what level was this decision taken? I would like to understand this. If a decision has been taken consciously, what is the logic behind it? Let the whole nation know. I would like to have answers to these few questions.… (Interruptions)

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: Nothing should be recorded.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

MR. DEPUTY- SPEAKER: Members speaking without my permission will not go in the record.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

SHRI B. MAHTAB (CUTTACK): I would like to request the hon. Minister that there is a necessity to provide more funds for establishment of Human Resource Development Central Institutes. Let us get an assurance from the hon. Minister. Whatever you say, we do not have any ill-will against the Cabinet Minister of Human Resource Development. We do not want to offend the hon. Minister who is going to reply today, but we have to plead our case. If you require all of us, all Members of Parliament from Orissa including the supporters who want Orissa to grow and prosper, all of us can go including the hon. Minister, Shri Jairam Ramesh. He can go and plead before the Minister of Human Resource Development, Shri Arjun Singh. Now let us hear from the hon. Minister.

SHRI KHARABELA SWAIN (BALASORE): The UPA Government all the time talks of inclusive growth. What is the meaning of this inclusive growth? Does it mean that the growth of some with the exclusion of others? You take the example of quality of human resource available in Orissa – in the Civil Service, in the banking sector, in the IT, in medicine, in engineering what is the percentage of Oriyas? It is one of the highest in India.

The hon. Minister, Shri Jairam Ramesh is sitting here. He was with us in the Standing Committee on Finance. Wherever he was going with us, he was finding that Oriya officers were prospering everywhere like in the Income-tax, in Central Excise, in banking and whenever he stands to speak here, he says, as ever, the `Kalinga Brigade’ is available here to listen to his speech. He knows that we always sit and we listen to him.

Sir, the UPA Government and everybody knows that now there is going to be a shortage of skilled manpower in this country by 2011. We have to import skilled manpower if this trend of not making the people skilled, and if continues in India, then we will have to import people. That is why, 1,000 IITs are going to be developed as centres of excellence. The hon. Minister of Finance told about this at the time of the Budget Speech. So I am asking what is the criterion for setting up of IITs. How many IITs are there in the United States of America? How many IITs are required in a country of India’s magnitude? Is it only seven? If you include three, it is going to be ten.

Sir let me tell you, a country of India’s magnitude requires 15,000 IITs. It may sound very lofty, but it is true. So a country of one billion people requires this.

Now the UPA Government is already charging two per cent Education Cess for primary education. From this year, you have imposed another one per cent for the higher education. Every year you say that your revenue collection is increasing by 20 per cent and 30 per cent. So, there is no shortage of money. There is no resource crunch. If there is no resource crunch, why do you not come for another technical institute of the magnitude of the IIT in a State like Orissa? Why should the people from Orissa, why should MPs from Orissa simply beg like beggars? Why should we beg for it? I am not accusing you. I am not accusing any individual or this Government, but I will appeal this Government that you should see to it that Oriyas should not just come and beg to you like this.

Let us have another institute. You have it in Bihar, Rajashan and Andhra Pradesh. We have no objection to that. I told you that we require 1500 technical institutions. You can have it in Kerala and everywhere. We also want, perhaps, one in Orissa. As has already been told by Shri Braja Kishore Tripathy, the IIT Kharagpur is willing to open a campus of its own in Bhubaneswar in Western Orissa which is comparatively an under-developed area. There, the Birla Institute of Energy is having the infrastructure and everything. You can develop it and improve it to the status of an IIT. You can do that.

Lastly, hon. Minister, let me tell you that if your Government has not agreed earlier to set up an institute of IIT in Orissa, if you have not agreed, please agree to it now. If you do not agree to it today, we will keep on raising this matter in this House for all time to come till you agree.

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: I would like to request the hon. Members to seek clarifications because I have a very long list of speakers with me. So, I would only love clarifications on this Calling Attention. I would now request Shri Prasanna Acharya to seek only clarifications.

SHRI PRASANNA ACHARYA (SAMBALPUR): Sir, it is a very important subject concerning the State of Orissa. My colleagues have very forcefully raised it.

THE MINISTER OF SHIPPING, ROAD TRANSPORT AND HIGHWAYS (SHRI T.R. BAALU): Sir, I want to know whether the second Calling Attention will be taken up today or tomorrow. At 3 of the Clock, there is another most important discussion.

MR. DEPUTY-SPEAKER: At this time, I cannot say anything. After we finish this, I will let you know.

I would request Shri Prasanna Acharya to seek only clarifications. No lengthy speech is allowed.

SHRI PRASANNA ACHARYA (SAMBALPUR): Sir, this is a very important subject concerning Orissa. I would earnestly thank the Chair for giving me permission to raise a few questions.

It is an admitted fact that whenever there is a Congress Government at the Centre or an alliance Government led by the Congress at the Centre, Orissa has been consistently neglected. Statistics alone speaks volumes about the continued injustice meted out to Orissa whenever there is a Congress-led Government be it Railways, be it the Plan Grants or allocation of Central University or IIT, Orissa. My pertinent question to the hon. Minister of State here, who is going to reply, is a few months back, the Minister of State Shri Fatmi, who is very much present here, announced in a public function that three IITs were going to be set up. One is in Bihar and another one is in Orissa. It was announced by the Minister. Whenever a Minister makes any public announcement, it is supposed that he is announcing it on behalf of the Government. Therefore, I do not just understand why on the plea of the recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister that the decision was subsequently changed. It is a million-dollar question for us, for the people of Orissa. When already a decision was taken that one IIT out of the three would be set up in Orissa, when it was declared by the Minister himself, why in the subsequent period the decision was again changed on the plea of the recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Council of the Prime Minister?

1442 hours (Mr. Speaker in the Chair)

I would like to draw your attention to another important issue. The Joshi Committee and subsequently the Anandakrishnan Committee evaluated a few of the old, quality engineering colleges to upgrade to the status of an IIEST. Then also, Orissa’s case was not properly considered. It was ignored at that time also. You know, Sir, that no State can achieve robust growth in economy without the sound base in science and technology which are directly linked to its economic development. While States like Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have leveraged the technology base, Orissa has suffered due to lack of such an institution. It is an admitted fact.

My colleague Shri Mehtab was very correctly saying that among the States in the South, West, North and East, Orissa is the only one State that does not have a single institution at the level of INIs. There are already 13 INIs in India. Orissa is zero. There is a total of 7 IITs in the country. Orissa is zero. There is a total of six IIMs in India. Orissa is zero.

There are 18 Central Universities in the country. We have been demanding for a Central University to be set up in Orissa, but it has not been conceded to so far. Orissa has no national level R & D establishment, except the Regional Research Laboratory

Sir, another very important point has been raised very correctly by my colleague. You will be surprised to know that the HRD Ministry is spending only Rs. 4.70 per person on higher education in Orissa. If you see the figures of other States, in Delhi it is Rs. 183.08, in Uttaranchal it is Rs. 115.14, in West Bengal it is Rs. 41.20 and in Karnataka it is Rs. 33.04. These figures will show you how the HRD Ministry has been consistently neglecting Orissa as far as higher education is concerned.

I would like to know whether the Government is aware that a new era of industrialization has begun in Orissa. Orissa is now poised to add in excess of 70 million tonnes per annum in steel, 4 million tonnes per annum in aluminium refining, 1 million tonne per annum in aluminium, 15 million tonnes per annum in petrochemical refining, 13,000 MW of power and 5 million tonnes per annum in cement. POSCO, Tata, Mittal, L & T, Aditya Birla, Infosys and so many other companies are coming to Orissa. When a new era in industrialization has begun in Orissa, is it not necessary that more and more qualified engineers and technologists are produced in Orissa? Our Chief Minister has twice written to the Prime Minister and he met the Prime Minister also and requested for setting up an IIT in Orissa. Shri Swain was mentioning about Birla University Centre. I demand that the Birla University Centre should be upgraded and should be given the status of an Indian Institute of Technology.

SHRI BIKRAM KESHARI DEO (KALAHANDI): Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have also given my name. I want to seek a clarification. … (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: What is this? You are evolving a new procedure. Even though it is unprecedented, you can associate your names and you send the slips to the Table.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: You are a senior Member. You know the rules. Please take your seat.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: I am not obliged to call anybody now. We go up to 5 Members and sometimes up to 6. Now, another 20 hon. Members are standing up and asking for chance to speak. How is it possible to allow all of you? I am sorry.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Let us follow some rule.

… (Interruptions)

PROF. RASA SINGH RAWAT (AJMER): Mr. Speaker, Sir, I have also given notice.

MR. SPEAKER: Notice means nothing Mr. Rawat.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Hon. Members, please take your seats. This is a specific subject. Hon. Members from the concerned State have spoken. So, there is no reason to allow any other hon. Member now.

SHRI N.N. KRISHNADAS (PALGHAT): Mr. Speaker, Sir, I want to seek a clarification.

MR. SPEAKER: No, I am sorry. This is not the procedure. The hon. Minister’s statement only will be recorded.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI): Sir, this is the 150^th year of the Soldiers’ Mutiny… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Mr. Thomas, I will not allow this kind of violation of rules. I have told you.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Mr. Deo, I will not allow this. You are defying the Chair deliberately.

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: Sir, this is the 150^th year of the Soldiers’ Mutiny, which is considered the corner stone, the basis for our Independence Movement and every Indian, every State had rightly its role to play in the Independence Movement. Not only Orissa, but the entire country was unified and did fight for its Independence. I would like to make that very clear here.

The Indian Institutes of Technology have been conceived as institutes of national importance and these institutes are leaders in technology innovation and also to educate and train graduates and post-graduate level technologists and engineers at all levels to the very best in any part of the country. Therefore, it can be justified that every State would want to have an IIT, which is considered a global brand in technical education, in their State.

But, before I proceed further and answer the various queries posed by my hon. Colleagues, I would just like to briefly outline the way in States in which these three IITs needs to be established was decided upon. Prof. C.N.R. Rao, Chairman of Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, had recommended the setting up of three IITs and his letter to the hon. HRD Minister has clearly indicated that one IIT needs to be established in South, one in East, possibly in… (Interruptions) Bihar and one in West, probably in Rajasthan… (Interruptions) It was very clearly mentioned… (Interruptions) I apologise for my slip of the tongue… (Interruptions)

SHRI BIKRAM KESHARI DEO (KALAHANDI): Sir, I am on a point of order.

MR. SPEAKER: There cannot be a point of order on the slip of tongue.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: I am sure the hon. Minister will be very happy, as all of us, to provide an IIT to Orissa, but she is saying why it has not been possible and why some decision has been taken. Nobody is unsympathetic. We all want an IIT in every State. Why not? But there are certain ways of doing things.

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: It was on his recommendation that three States were identified as possible locations for the new IITs that were to be set up.

With regard to IISCR, that Shri Braja Kishore Tripathy was mentioning, the idea was mooted by the then Chairman of UGC and UGC was not considered a competing body to actually open institutes. It was only a body which would extend grants to the universities and colleges. Therefore, in the Law Ministry, it was not considered legal by the UGC to announce the opening up of an IISCR. That was the reason why the idea of opening up of IISCR to be established in Orissa was dropped.

As far as the remark which Shri Fatmi had made is concerned, he is very much present here and he clearly declines having made such a remark… (Interruptions)

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): The hon. Minister should not say that. Otherwise, I will bring a privilege motion… (Interruptions)

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: He is present here and has denied that… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: What is being done here? Neither your statement is recorded nor her statement can be heard.

… (Interruptions)

SHRI BIKRAM KESHARI DEO (KALAHANDI): Sir, she is misleading the House… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Mr. Deo, you are a very alert Member. If she is misleading the House, you have ample remedy.

SHRI BIKRAM KESHARI DEO (KALAHANDI): Sir, she is beating around the bush… (Interruptions) I am on a point of order.

MR. SPEAKER: She is beating around the bush.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: There is no point of order for that. I have never heard of having a point of order on beating around the bush.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: All right then, I will stop this discussion here.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Do not record any observation. Any hon. Member speaking without the permission of the Chair is not to be recorded. You know that rule.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

(o1/1455/rcp/rpm)

MR. SPEAKER: Nobody can compel any particular Minister to reply.

The hon. Minister may continue.

… (Interruptions)

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: As far as the proposal to set up an IIT in Kharagpur is concerned, to have large extension, the greenfields campuses of IITs in other States opened by IITs somewhere else would actually call for 500 to 600 acres of land from the State Governments. As he said, the State Government was ready… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: What is this?

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: At the same time, the cost of land development itself would be around Rs. 120 crore to Rs. 150 crore besides the cost of setting up the entire infrastructure would be somewhere to the tune of Rs. 1000 crore … (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: What is this? Nothing is being recorded.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: Besides this, the burden of the non-recurring would again fall on the Government of India. It is not to shirk away from the responsibility; it is to consolidate. We, already, have shortcomings in the other IITs as such. We have faculty problems; we have infrastructural problems. Unless we consolidate all these, we would not be in a position to open Greenfield campuses elsewhere in other States. That was the reason. However, Bhubaneswar does have an extension centre opened by IIT Kharagpur which actually extends post doctoral, continuing education programmes there. It has been there for quite some time.

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): You accept the proposal of Kharagpur also.

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: We have not accepted the proposal of Kharagpur.

Planning Commission has only given an in-principle approval for setting up of these three new IITs.… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: I would be very happy to have an IIT in Puri.

… (Interruptions)

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: But where the IITs need to be set up has not been mentioned by the Planning Commission. This was clearly mentioned in the C.N.R. Rao Report itself.

Mahtabji has questioned the mandate of the Scientific Advisory Committee. The Scientific Advisory Council to the PM has a mandate to recommend the development of science and technology in the country. IISERs have been set up based on these recommendations. Besides this, IITs also are being also set up based on these recommendations again. As I said, it was not very easy; the cost of setting up of an IIT is to the tune of Rs. 1000 crore besides the land and the land development cost.

Coming to allegation that Orissa has been sidelined or has been marginalized, I would like to briefly read out the names of the Centrally-funded Institutes which are already existing. There is Regional Research Laboratory at Bhubaneswar, Biju Patnaik National Steel Institute at Puri, Extension Centre Kharagpur, Indian Institute of Mass Communication at Dhenkanal, Regional Medical Research Institute.… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Do not record anything.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

SHRIMATI D. PURANDESWARI: There is Central Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, Central Institute of Freshwater Aquaculture at Kausalyaganga, National Institute of Rehabilitation, Training and Research at Cuttack, Water Technology Centre for Eastern Region at Bhubaneswar… (Interruptions) National Research Centre for Women in Agriculture at Bhubaneswar,

MR. SPEAKER: She is doing a brilliant job. Kindly support it.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Do not be angry, young man.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Now, we take up item no. 9. Shri Jairam Ramesh.

… (Interruptions)

1500 hours

(At this stage, Shri Brahmananda Panda and some other hon. Members came

and stood near the Table.)

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: You are all senior Members and responsible Members. This is not the way. Please go back to your seats.

Let us not bring down this institution. Everyday it is happening. I appeal to all of you to go back to your seats.

… (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Please do not record anything.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

1501 hours

(At this stage, Shri Brahmananda Panda and some other hon. Members

went back to their seats.)

SHRI BRAJA KISHORE TRIPATHY (PURI): Sir, we are not satisfied with the reply of the hon. Minister. … (Interruptions)

MR. SPEAKER: Nothing will go on record.

(Interruptions) … (Not recorded)

MR. SPEAKER: Enough is enough. Now, item no. 9. Shri Jairam Ramesh.

PAPERS LAID ON THE TABLE—Contd.

1502 hours

23 Educational Institutes Announced in the Country, Orissa got None: Samaja

2007-05-17T00:54:00.000-07:00

Arjun Confused Naveen on IIT issue: Sambad

2007-05-17T00:46:00.000-07:00

Lalit Patnaik's report on the Delhi Visit by Agami ODishA

2007-05-17T00:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,

We have just returned from Delhi in the morning. As some of the MP's were interested to shift our Dharana to next session b'coz they have already highlighted the issue in Parliament, we concentrated on meeting Odia's at different localities such as Gurgaon, Janakpuri, Dwaraka, Rajendra nagar and Orissa Bhawan. In different small groups of 10 to 20 persons we highlighted our demand and explained the justification of our demand. All of them appriciated our stand and expressed full support in days to come. We also apprised intellectuals from JNU and Ex-VC of Sambalpur University, and MLA's of Orissa, who happened to gather at Orissa Niwas for their different seminars.

We met First lady Mrs Rameswar Thakur and discussed for 1/2 an hour and handed over the Memorandum. She was very sympathetic for our cause and said she will appraise everything to Governor personally and will give the Memorandum.

We met Fishery Minister of Orissa Shree Golak Bihari Nayak and appraised him about our demand. He highly appreciated our stand and march to Delhi by Budhijibi's. He assured all support to us in mobilizing support for such genuine demand of ours in Mayurbhanj.

We met Shree Chandrasekhar Sahu, Minister of Union Government and handed over our Memorandum. He informed us in detail his recent meeting with PM of India and assured that upgradation of UCE, Burla to IIEST, new KBK university, new Fashion Technology and up gradation of Cuttack Law College to National Law college status are on the cards but the demand should be viewed by every one at Delhi as a genuine one from the people of Orissa rather then a Political agenda. He highly appreciated our endeavor.

We are also lucky to receive appointment from CM Shree Naveen Pattnaik on 15th morning and expressed all our points on IIT and up gradation of UCE, Burla to IIEST and the real requirement of University in KBK districts. He received us with full attention and appreciated the stand of Intellectuals for such good cause. He read the entire documents and appriciated all detail information inside it and said he will cary it to bbsr.
He said he has just comeback from MHRD and has put up IIT and other Higher educational institute demand to Arjun Sing and that it will be sanctioned in this 11th Plan. He was also kind enough to discuss many other issue of Orissa pertaining to overall growth of Orissa with us. He also expressed his desire for the people who understand the policy and should come forward to make other's understand as to what is good for the Odia society. Lastly, he assured to leave no stone unturned for getting IIT to Orissa.

After coming back, today i saw all leading News paper has published about IIT and it’s related movement, Dharana and seminars in it's Front page. It's really heartening to see all these days the high light has been IIT.To-day, IIT is there in every body's lip and exactly that's what we wanted i.e. to foccus all attention to our projected issue. It seems our purpose of highlighting the issue has been achieved.

To-day Alumni, UCE, Burla is sitting at Burla college to chalk out it’s future strategies on this issue as conveyed by Shree Ashesh Padhi, Secretary Alumni Assn, UCE, Burla. Me and Er Bimal mishra may go to sambalpur this afternoon to attend the meeting. Agamee Odisha will sit on day after To-morrow, as conveyed by Dr. Santosh tripathy, to develop a coordinated approach for all related activities, so that maximum benifit is obtained.
Friends, our movement is 70 % successful. Rest 30% will depends on all our continued efforts. Now, we have to ensure the result of our movement by working little harder than before.

Thanking you all for your sustained support.

Yours,
Lalit Pattnaik,
(We have thanked all above VVIP's of Orissa on behalf of every body.)

Tathya: Politicians make promises to coolly back out later.

2007-05-16T09:09:00.000-07:00

New Delhi:16/May/2007
Politicians make promises to coolly back out later.

Similarly, when Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik met the Union Human Resources Development (HRD) Minister Arjun Singh on May 15 here, he also gave a word to include an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) to the state.

And Naveen came back on a happy mode to issue a statement, which has been widely covered in the media.

It is said that people’s memory is short.

But in case of an IIT it seems our memory is too short.

On May 8, when BJD and BJP MPs demanded a reply from the HRD Minister of State D.Purandeswari on the floor of the Lok Sabha, she out right rejected the demand for an IIT.

And the HRD Minister Mr.Singh after a week promises us the moon which we believe it.

Before we accept his words as true, it is high time to have a look at the attitude of HRD Ministry under the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government towards Orissa during its stay at the Centre.

Since UPA government came to power in the Centre, the Ministry of HRD has already announced for funding 23 institutions of higher learning like Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT),School of Planning and Achitecture ( SPA), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research(IISER), Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology(IIEST) also referred to as IIT clones and Central Universities.

The Congress ruled Andhra Pradesh is leading the pack.

The MHRD has provided an IIT, SPA, upgraded Andhra University of Engineering College and Osmania University of Engineering College to IIT clone (IIEST) and CIEFL Hyderabad made to a Central university.

To set up an IIT the MHRD spends around Rs1000-Rs4000 crores.

Bihar and Rajasthan also got an IIT each.

West Bengal received an IISER with an investment of Rs.500 crore and MHRD has upgraded Bengal Engineering and Science University to an IIT clone, IIEST.

Kerala got an IISER and has been able to upgrade the Cochin University of Science and Technology to IIEST.

Maharastra, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh also received IISER one each.

Meghalaya also received IIM from MHRD kitty, which will cost more than an Rs.1000 crore.

The MHRD has sanctioned two SPAs in Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.

Tamilnadu also got an IIIT at Kanchipuram from the MHRD.

While Orissa is crying for a Central University, Sikkim got a new one and Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh also Tripura have been able to receive MHRD fund to upgrade their universities to a Central University status.

Then where is Orissa?

It seems the state does not exist for MHRD so far funding of the higher educational institutions are concerned.

CM meets with Arjun Singh on IIT and other issues

2007-05-16T05:25:00.001-07:00

It has been widely reported [Times of India, Statesman, Telegraph, Pioneer, New Indian Express, Samaja, Pragativadi, Kalinga Times] that the CM met HRD minister Mr. Arjun Singh on the IIT issue and Mr. Singh promised to consider Orissa for an IIT when the 11th is finalized.

However, Mr. Singh’s promise does not mean much. He has made such promises before during the time when the CM met him for NIS. In fact with respect to IIT Kharagpur’s campus in Bhubaneswar Mr. Singh’s meeting with the CM had been reported on September 29 2006 as follows:

The Chief Minister, Orissa, Shri Naveen Patnaik met the Union Minister for Human Resources development, Shri Arjun Singh today to discuss about the establishment of a campus of IIT, Kharagpur in Orissa. Shri Patnaik stated that the Government of Orissa have offered 300 acres of land next to Bhubaneswar city for setting up the campus and the State Government is fully committed to provide all necessary assistance for the institution. Since Orissa is fast emerging as a hub for industrial activities, an institution of the stature of IIT will provide the much needed boost to the efforts of the Government in providing support to these industries. The Union Minister, Shri Arjun Singh stated that the Central Government is positively inclined for setting up such an institution soon.

Similarly, with respect to KBK Central University Mr. Singh’s meeting with the CM had been reported on October 24 2005 as follows:

Statesman News Service BHUBANESWAR, Oct. 24. — Chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik today urged the Centre to accord approval for a central university in the undivided Koraput-Bolangir-Kalahandi (KBK) districts, besides expediting setting up the proposed Regional Centre of Studies in Integrated Sciences at Bhubaneswar. These requests were made by the Chief minister during his meeting with the Union Human Resources Development minister Mr Arjun Singh at New Delhi today. Mr Singh sought a formal proposal from the state government for the establishment of a central university in KBK region while appreciating the rationale behind the idea, said an official release.

So we should not get lulled by Mr. Singh saying that he will consider. We need to put pressure on him from all sides to actually grant an IIT for Orissa.

Kalinga Times: Centre will consider IIT for Orissa - Arjun Singh

2007-05-16T04:25:00.000-07:00

Centre will consider IIT for Orissa: Arjun Singh

KalingaTimes Correspondent
New Delhi: Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh on Tuesday assured Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik that the State's demand for the setting up of an Indian Institute of Technology will be considered while finalising the proposals of his Ministry for the 11th Plan.

The Union Minister's assurance came when the Chief Minister met him here on Tuesday.

Patnaik urged Singh to set up a new IIT in Orissa stating that the State did not have a single educational institution of national excellence so far.

The demand for an IIT in the State had gained strength after the United Progressive Alliance Government recently clarified in Parliament that there was no plan to set up an IIT in the State during the 11th Plan Period.

Earlier, Patnaik had also written a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention in the matter.

Orissa was in need of higher educational institutions to meet its requirement of well-trained professionals in view of the industrial growth taking place in the State in the recent years, Patnaik said.

The demand for an IIT continues to be in focus in Orissa with different political parties and other organisations organising dharnas and demonstrations to highlight the issue during the past few days.

According to an official release, during his meeting with Singh on Tuesday Patnaik also raised the demand for setting up of an Indian Institute of Management in the State and a Central University in the backward Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput region. Singh, however, did not give any assurance with regard to these demands.

New Indian Express: IIT must for Orissa - Naveen

2007-05-16T04:24:00.000-07:00

IIT must for Orissa: Naveen
Wednesday May 16 2007 11:08 IST

BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday lodged a strong protest against the Centre�s neglect towards the State in the education sector and flayed its decision not to set up an IIT in Orissa.

Naveen, who met HRD Minister Arjun Singh in this connection in New Delhi, demanded that the Centre should sanction an IIT for the State as it does not have a single institution of national importance.

Other demands included a Central university for the KBK region and an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the State. Singh promised that the demand for setting up an IIT would be considered while finalising the proposals for his Ministry for the 11th Five-Year Plan.

The Bhubaneswar unit of BJD staged a dharna in front of the Raj Bhawan on Tuesday and submitted a memorandum to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanding establishment of an IIT in Orissa.

Criticising the decision of the Centre, president of Bhubaneswar unit of the party Prakash Chandra Bastia alleged that the IIT project was shifted to Andhra Pradesh despite the State Government giving its consent to allot 400 to 500 acres of land.

The proposal of the State Government to have a campus of IIT, Kharagpur, has also been abandoned despite availability of 300 acres of land.

Samaja gives a positive picture on discussion between CM and Mr Arjun Singh

2007-05-15T23:58:00.000-07:00

Pioneer: Arjun non-committal on Naveen's IIT demand

2007-05-15T16:21:00.001-07:00

Subhasis Mohanty \| Bhubaneswar
In the wake of a Statewide protest over Centre's decision not to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Orissa, Chief Minister Naveen Patanaik on Tuesday met Union Minister of Human Resource Development Arjun Singh in New Delhi.

However, Singh was noncommittal about lending his weight behind the State's demand. Sources said that Singh also refused to meet journalists who sought to know his stand on the Orissa Government's fresh demand for an IIT.

During their meeting, Patnaik reasoned that Orissa does not have a single institution of national excellence and that the people of the State have a long standing demand for establishment of an IIT. However, Singh assured that the demands put forth by the State would be considered while finalising the proposals of his Ministry for the 11th plan.

Patnaik also put forth a demand for setting up a Central University in the KBK region and an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the State. It may be noted that Patnaik has also sent a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh protesting against the Centre's decision not to set up the institute in Orissa.

Patnaik also met Union Minister for Road Transport,Highways and Shipping TR Baalu and impressed upon him the poor conditions of the National Highways in Orissa. Baalu assured the Chief Minister that extra funds would be allocated to take up urgent repair work on National Highways that connects Keonjhar district. Discussions were also held on the proposed Vijayawada-Ranchi road, which would traverse through 11 Maoists infested districts.

In yet another major development, Patnaik met Union Minister for Chemicals and Fertilizers Ram Vilas Paswan and urged him to take steps to revive the Fertiliser Corporation of India Limited plant at Talcher in the first phase. Paswan assured Patnaik that the plant would be revived and necessary advertisements in this regard would be issued shortly.

Telegraph: Naveen calls for IIT cause

2007-05-15T15:09:00.000-07:00

Naveen calls for IIT cause

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Bhubaneswar, May 15: Chief minister Naveen Patnaik today reiterated his demand of an IIT in the state, even as Biju Yuva Janata Dal members staged a dharna before the Raj Bhavan here.

The party was protesting the Centre’s decision to not set up an IIT here but in Andhra Pradesh. Naveen, who met Union HRD minister Arjun Singh at New Delhi today, reiterated his demand.

“Orissa does not have a single institution of national excellence and the demand for IIT is a long-standing one,” he said while justifying the demand. Today, activists of BJD’s youth wing staged a dharna before the Raj Bhavan over the IIT issue. President of the youth wing, Ratha Das said successive governments at the Centre have treated the state unfairly. “An IIT would do a world of good to Orissa,” he fumes.

Meanwhile, at New Delhi the chief minister urged the HRD minister to bring up Orissa’s demand during the 11th Five Year Plan period. Relying to the CM’s request, Singh assured that the demands put forth, particularly in regard to a new IIT, would be considered while finalising the proposals for the 11th plan.

During discussion, the chief minister also put forth demands for establishment of a central university in the backward KBK region and an Indian Institute of Management at Orissa.

Last week, Naveen had also written to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, protesting the Centre’s decision to set up three new IITs in other states, while ignoring Orissa’s claim.

During the day, the chief minister also met with the Union coal minister, Dasari Narayan Rao, and urged for expeditious allocation of coal blocks on a priority basis to five public sector undertakings.

Statesman: CM takes up IIT plea with Arjun

2007-05-15T15:07:00.001-07:00

Statesman News Service

BHUBANESWAR, May 15: Taking up the issue of establishment of an IIT in Orissa with Union HRD minister Mr Arjun Singh in New Delhi today, chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik justified the demand pointing out that the state did not have a single institution of national excellence.
Mr Singh is said to have informed the CM that the matter would be considered while finalising proposals of his ministry for the 11th Plan.

Mr Patnaik also put forth demands for a Central varsity for KBK region and an IIM. At his meeting with Union minister for chemicals and fertilisers Mr Ram Vilas Paswan today, the CM urged for early revival of the FCI plant at Talcher. Congratulating Mr Paswan for his decision to revive the closed fertiliser units under the Central government, including the one located at Talcher, Mr Patnaik wanted the Talcher to be taken up in the first phase.

Mr Paswan said the Centre was fully committed to reviving the Talcher plant and necessary advertisement in this regard will be issued shortly.

The chief minister also discussed the proposed petroleum chemicals and petrochemicals investment region (PCPIR) in Paradip and assured the Union minister that the state government would take all necessary steps to expedite the ground work relating to the PCPIR at Paradeep.

TOI: CM Naveen Patnaik talks to Arjun Singh about an IIT

2007-05-15T15:05:00.000-07:00

Orissa to have an IIT: Navin Patnaik
16 May, 2007 l 0127 hrs ISTlPTI

NEW DELHI: Orissa Chief Minister Navin Patnaik on Wednesday asked the Centre to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the state as it did not have a single institution of national excellence.

"I met Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh and demanded setting up of an IIT in Orissa as it was a long standing demand of the people of the state," Patnaik said.

He said he had asked Singh to consider setting up an IIT in the coastal state during the 11th Plan period.

The HRD Minister has assured that the demand of the state would be considered while finalising the proposals of his ministry for the current Five Year Plan, he said.

Orissa Minister of Tourism and IT Surya Patra talks about central apathy and IIT shifting

2007-05-15T06:48:00.000-07:00

Orissa Minister of Tourism and IT Surya Patra talks to journalists about central apathy and specifically lays out what happened with respect to the IIT shifting as well as cancellation of the plans to establish a branch campus of IIT Kharagpur in Orissa. This is reported in major papers in Orissa: Dharitri, Samaja [1,2], Sambada, Pragtivadi, Statesman etc. In Samaja it is a front-page headline.

Samaja also has an article with a picture on the protest organized by BJD in regards to the IIT issue.

Central Government Ignorance is NOT Bearable

2007-05-15T03:25:00.000-07:00

Demontration against shifting of IIT by Katak District BJD

2007-05-15T03:17:00.000-07:00

A large demontration against shifting of IIT was held by Katak district BJD unit on 14th May 2007.

Details in PDF

Statesman: Congress had been pressing for establishment of an IIT in Orissa!!

2007-05-14T17:53:00.000-07:00

No project against people’s wishes’

Statesman News Service

BHUBANESWAR, May 13: Posco steel plant cannot be set up against the wishes and interest of farmers, it can be done only through negotiations between the company and the peasants. The Congress will stand by the farmers if they refuse to part with their land, said AICC general secretary in charge of Orissa Mr V Narayanswami while responding to questions on the Posco-India steel plant project.

The state Congress has been objecting to certain provisions of the MoU with Posco, but the Centre has been backing the project to the hilt and virtually monitoring its progress since it involves the biggest FDI attracted by the country till date.

Asked about the conflicting stands, the AICC general secretary said the policy was to stay clear and ask the company to negotiate with locals in order to acquire, if the farmers refuse and say it is against their interest, their position stands and we will support them, he said.

Mr Narayanswami was, however, more assertive in saying that his party had been pressing for establishment of an IIT in Orissa. Even recently, we met the Prime Minister and urged upon him to set up an IIT in the state , but unlike the BJD-BJP, the party will not take recourse to agitation, he added. The AICC general secretary pointed out that the Prime Minister had already sanctioned a world class science institute for Orissa which will be under the Atomic Energy Department.

Statesman: Demonstrations at district headquarters to protest against rejection of Orissa’s demand for an IIT.

2007-05-14T17:33:00.000-07:00

Naveen’s power fund plea in Delhi

Statesman News Service

BHUBANESWAR, May 14: Chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik today urged upon Union power minister Mr Sushil Kumar Shinde to expedite sanction of funds and projects for the state under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutikaran Yojana while drawing attention of the low and slow disposal by the Centre.

Mr Patnaik, who met with Mr Shinde in New Delhi, pointed out that detailed project reports for all 30 districts of the state had been sent to the Centre. Only eight districts were accorded in principle approvals, while funds were released for only two districts, he noted.

Sanction and release have to be expedited to enable the state to get maximum benefit from the RGGVY programme which can establish connectivity to households and strengthen the distribution network in rural areas , he said.

The chief minister also wanted Mr Shinde to review and relax the revised guidelines issued recently by the Centre stipulating that villages with a population of over 300 would come under the RGGVY programme.
Orissa has several backward and tribal areas where habitation is even less than 300, observed the CM while pleading for relaxation of the norm.
Mr Shinde is said to have informed the CM that the first objective was to cover all villages with a population of 300 plus and subsequently, other areas could be taken up.

The CM also raised the issue of allotment of coal blocks for shell companies floated by state public sector undertakings. There are seven such coal blocks available and three shell companies have been set up by the Orissa Hydro Power Corporation, he said while urging for a favourable response in terms of allotments.

Meanwhile, in the state capital here, energy minister Mr SN Patra upped the anti-Centre ante and said UPA was deliberately neglecting Orissa in all fields. Talking to reporters, Mr Patra claimed that BJD held demonstrations today at district headquarters to protest against rejection of Orissa’s demand for an IIT.

Mr Patra said the RGGVY was nothing but a renaming of the rural electrification programme undertaken by the NDA government. The UPA said it would provide Rs 15,000 crore for the programme, but it has given only Rs 5000 crore, he charged.

The minister alleged that the state’s demand for 12 per cent free power from generating stations set up using coal of the state had been rejected by the Centre. “We were entitled to one-third of the NTPC Kaniha generation for the first 1000 MW and we got it but the same was not extended when another 2000 MW was added in the Kaniha plant,” he charged. People of Orissa will not tolerate such apathy and neglect and the BJD will launch a campaign against the Centre, he declared.

Telegraph : BJD youth wing to launch a state-wide protest

2007-05-14T17:27:00.000-07:00

Youths of BJD picks up fight

OUR CORRESPONDENT

Bhubaneswar, May 14: A day after the Opposition resolved to protest against the state’s BJD-BJP government, the youth wing of the BJD today announced to launch a state-wide stir to protest against the UPA’s apathy towards Orissa’s issues.

Talking to reporters here today, BJD general secretary and the state’s energy and IT minister Surya Narayan Patro alleged that the UPA government has been harsh towards Orissa.

He lamented that the Union HRD minister’s decision to establish three IITs in Orissa, Bihar and Rajasthan, was subsequently changed, “denying” Orissa its rightful claim.

He further pointed out to the decision taken by the Centre to not to pursue the plan of an off-campus of Kharagpur, IIT, denying a better future to Orissa yet again.

Several mass organisations have already launched agitation against the Congress-led UPA government and staged demonstrations before the Parliament over the IIT issue.

Apparently in a bid to seize the opportunity to launch a tirade against the Congress, the ruling regional outfit has decided to raise the bogey of central neglect, political observers believe.

Citing other instances of “central neglect” and “step-motherly treatment”, Patro said the Centre had provided a meagre Rs 60 crore to Orissa under the Rajiv Gandhi Gramin Vidyutkaran Yojana, as against the Rs 300 crore to Uttar Pradesh.

Their decision to exclude sparsely-populated regions from the scheme would affect the tribal and backward regions of the states, he rued.

Couple of IIT related protest meetings in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar

2007-05-14T17:09:00.000-07:00

Samaja reports on couple of IIT related protest meetings in Cuttack and Bhubaneswar; one is in Cuttack by CPI-M and the other in Bhubaneswar by the association of engineers.

Naveen needs to spruce up own backyard while seeking IIT

2007-05-13T15:21:00.000-07:00

DILIP BISOI Posted online: Monday, May 14, 2007 at 0000 hours IST

BHUBANESWAR: Orissa politicians seem adept at making an issue of nothing. The latest is the demand for setting up of an IIT (Indian Institute of Technology). Last week, MPs of the Biju Janta Dal and the Bharatiya Janata Party sat on dharna in front of the Lok Sabha protesting against the Centre's rejection of Orissa's demand for establishment of a new IIT in the state.

The Centre has decided to set up three IITs in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Rajasthan during the Eleventh Plan period. Orissa politicians believe the Centre has shifted one IIT that had originally been allotted to Orissa to Andhra Pradesh. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik, in a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, some time in January 2007, had demanded a greenfield IIT in the state.

"The vibrant growth in industrial and technical education sectors provides enormous potential for industry and institutional linkages. Establishment of an IIT in Orissa will greatly facilitate in intensifying this process. Orissa is playing host to the biggest ever FDI projects in the country, Posco and Arcelor-Mittal steel project. Presence of such strong industrial players will definitely provide required synergy for an IIT-level institution to realize its full potential", Patnaik had written.

The CM also urged the PM and the Union human resources development minister to facilitate the setting up of an extension campus of IIT, Kharagpur, in the state. The board of directors of IIT, Kharagpur, has approved an off-campus in Bhubaneswar and the state government has assured allotment of 300 acre free of cost. But the off-campus is not coming up as the required clearance has not coming from the Union HRD ministry. "Shocking", rues Patnaik. "The Centre has done a great injustice to the state by ignoring its rightful demand", he says.

Earlier, state politicians had made an issue out of the location of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc). On popular belief that the IISc was shifted to West Bengal soon after the UPA came to power, BJD-BJP leaders made noises alleging the Centre's negligence. Finally, the PM had to announce the establishment of a National Institute of Science Education and Research in the state.

Meanwhile, Orissa has lined up three universities in the private sector. While Vedanta Resources has signed an MoU with the state government to establish a world class university over an area of 8,000 acre with an investment of Rs 15,000 crore, spiritual guru Ravi Shankar and the Hyderabad-based Institute of Chartered Financial Analysts of India have proposed two separate universities. The ICFAI university will come up over 75 acre, with an investment of Rs 150 crore.

There are five universities in the government sector in the state. KIIT, a private degree engineering college has been accorded deemed university status. Orissa has 40 engineering degree colleges with an intake capacity of 12,000 students. As many as 19 colleges are providing MBA courses. Hence, the chief minister, while demanding an IIT, should first make a serious endeavour to improve the quality of education in existing engineering colleges. For, a lone IIT will not be able to meet the demand from scores of industries he has lined up in recent years.

Chandrasekhar Sahu meets PM on the IIT issue and suggests alternatives

2007-05-13T01:15:00.000-07:00

Pragativadi on CM's letter to PM

2007-05-11T11:47:00.000-07:00

IIT issue: Navin dashes letter to PM
Bhubaneswar: Close on the heels of the outright rejection of the Centre to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Orissa, chief minister Navin Patnaik on Thursday dashed a letter to prime minister Manmohan Singh in this connection.
The letter stated that the recent reply of Union minister of state for human resource development on the floor of the Parliament regarding establishment of IITs in the country has come as a shock to us.
Expressing deep anguish and surprise over the double entendre by the Centre in this connection, Patnaik, in his letter, reminded the prime minister of the announcement made by the Union minister of state for HRD Mohd Fatmi on August 28 last year in Patna that

Orissa was included in the proposal for three green field IITs in the 11th Five Year Plan.

It is indeed painful that this announcement has been reversed by the ministry of HRD for reasons not known to others, he noted.
Patnaik also went on saying that since Orissa has no institute of excellence in higher learning, there was a proposal to open a branch of IIT, Kharagpur, in Bhubaneswar for which the state government had promised land of nearly 300 acres.
It appears that even this proposal has been turned down, he observed.
Referring to his earlier meting with the honourable HRD minister in this connection, the chief minister said that the latter had told him that the case of Orissa can be considered for a full-fledged green field IIT.

The recent decision of government of India to locate the IITs in states which already have the benefit of many Central institutes indicates that objective criteria have not been followed in deciding the locations of the three IITs, he said, and requested the prime minister to include Orissa’s case in the 11^th Five-Year Plan.

It may be mentioned here that the ruling BJP and BJD MPs of Orissa had staged a walkout in the Parliament on Tuesday followed by a sit-in dharna in front of the Parliament on the next day in protest against the statement of Union minister of state for Human Resource Development D Purandeshwari that the Centre has no plans to set up an IIT in Orissa in near future.
They also threatened to take to the streets till the demand of the state is met by the Centre.

More news items on CM writes to PM again

2007-05-11T09:41:00.000-07:00

Orissa not to have a premier IIT institute: state government calls it unfortunate

2007-05-11T09:38:00.000-07:00

Orissa not to have a premier IIT institute: state government calls it unfortunate
By Deepak Kumar Mohanty
Delhi

May 11: The people of Orissa have expressed the central government’s decision for not setting up an Indian Institute of Technology IIT in the state as unfortunate. In the parliamentary session, on Tuesday, the Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, D.Purandeshwari, confirmed that the centre had no plan to set up an IIT in Orissa.

From a long time the people of Orissa have demanded a premier institute but the present UPA government has undermined the state government’s demand and also the will of the people, which can be realized as against democratic set up.

Though the UPA government has approved to set up three new IIT institutes at Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan and Bihar but it has sideline the same for Orissa state. The fact that despite the state attracting huge amount of foreign investments for its mineral resources has not been helped with proper infrastructure is really unfortunate. Orissa is going to have India’s highest FDI with Korean steel maker POSCO and apart from it Mital Steel has also signed an agreement with the state government. Under these developments, the demand for IIT is unavoidable.

Earlier the state government informed the centre to provide 300 acres land and forwarded a proposal to set up an IIT in the state. Even IIT-Kharagpur has made a proposal for setting up an extensive campus in Bhubaneswar. The centre did earlier approve the proposal but the present government has ruled it out. The BJD-BJP coalition government in the state and the people of Orissa see it as ignorance on the part of central government.

The BJD and BJP MPs have already shown their dissatisfaction inside and outside parliament. Chief Minister, Naveen Patnaik, has also written a letter to the Prime Minister in this regard.

The Biju Janata Dal in the state is trying to provide for the positive results in future as far as vote bank is concerned. The Congress Party’s position is really worse in the state; and such ignorance can further weaken its position in the state.

Statesman: Naveen's missive to PM on IIT

2007-05-10T13:57:00.000-07:00

IIT ~ Naveen’s missive to PM

Statesman News Service

BHUBANESWAR, May 10: “The recent reply of Union minister of state for human resource development on the floor of the Parliament regarding establishment of IITs in the country has come as a shock to us,” said chief minister Mr Naveen Patnaik in his letter to Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today.

Carrying forward the protest of BJD-BJP MPs in New Delhi and their walkout over the issue in parliament, CM today wrote to the Prime Minister iterating the demand for an IIT in the state. The BJP, on its part, staged a protest dharna in front of Raj Bhavan here today and some of their leaders said they would continue to agitate till the demand was met.
Union minister of state for HRD Mr MM Fatmi as recently as on 28 August 2006 had mentioned in Patna that Orissa was included in the proposal for three green field IITs in the 11th Five Year Plan. It is indeed painful that this has been reversed by the ministry of HRD for reasons not known to others, noted Mr Patnaik in his letter.

Orissa does not have any institute of excellence in higher learning. There was a proposal to open a branch of IIT, Kharagpur, in Bhubaneswar for which government of Orissa had promised land of nearly 300 acres. It appears that even this proposal has been turned down.

“When I met the honourable minister of HRD in this connection, he had indicated to me that the case of Orissa can be considered for a full-fledged green field IIT. The recent decision of government of India to locate the IITs in states which already have the benefit of many Central institutes indicates that objective criteria have not been followed in deciding the locations of the 3 IITs. Mr Patnaik implored the PM to include Orissa’s case in the 11th Five Year Plan.

Tathya.in: Signature Campaign for IIT

2007-05-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

Odisha.com (in Oriya): IIT movement picks up momentum

2007-05-10T10:22:00.000-07:00

India eNews: Political activists, students demand IIT for Orissa

2007-05-10T09:05:00.000-07:00

Political activists, students demand IIT for Orissa

From correspondents in Orissa, India, 08:31 PM IST

(Also in New Kerala)

Hundreds of students and political activists Thursday demanded the central government set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Orissa, a day after the government said it had no such plan.

Over 300 activists of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) staged demonstration in front of the Raj Bhaban here, the official residence of Governor Rameshwar Thakur.

Students of Rupalli Vidyapitha, a residential school in the city, also launched a signature campaign to press the demand for setting up the premier engineering institute.

Orissa does not have any institute of national repute like the IITs, Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) or Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Samir Mohanty said.

The central government had earlier promised to set up an IIT but it did not keep its promise, he alleged.

On Wednesday, Minister of State for Human Resource Development D. Purandeshwari categorically said in parliament that the central government had no plan to set up an IIT in Orissa.

The minister said this replying to call attention notices given by some Biju Janata Dal (BJD) members.

BJD and BJP MPs of Orissa had staged a protest at the main gate of the Parliament House Wednesday demanding an IIT in the state and denouncing the apathetic attitude of the HRD ministry.

'We will continue our fight against the step motherly attitude of the central government towards Orissa,' state BJP MP Jual Oram told IANS.

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has described the central government's rejection of setting up an IIT in Orissa as 'unfortunate' and said BJD-BJP combine will take the issue to the streets.

Orissadiary.com picture of BJP dharana for an IIT in Orissa in front of Governor's house

2007-05-10T07:27:00.000-07:00

From Orissadiary.com.

New Indian Express: Blame it on poor lobbying for IIT loss

2007-05-10T06:30:00.000-07:00

Blame it on poor lobbying for IIT loss
Thursday May 10 2007 14:17 IST

BHUBANESWAR: Even as the BJD-BJP MPs staged a dharna in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday protesting Centre�s rejection of Orissa�s demand for establishment of a new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), lack of hard lobbying by the State seems to have been its undoing.

If sources in the HRD Ministry are to be believed the State Government failed to press hard enough for the prestigious institute which ultimately went to Andhra Pradesh.

Apart from writing a few letters to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and HRD Minister Arjun Singh on the issue, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik did little else.

Neither Patnaik nor his Cabinet colleagues ursued the matter as aggressively as other States, the sources said.

Not a single letter of the Chief Minister or the Industries Department requesting for establishment of an IIT in the State has ever been referred to the department of the Ministry concerned.

No State Government representative had ever inquired on the developments on the front. The case is exactly opposite with other States.

Not only officers but also Ministers of other states were frequently visiting the Ministry to lobby for their region. Their approach was business-like. This is the second instance in which the UPA Government has ignored the State�s interest.

The first one being the Indian Institute of Science which was relocated to West Bengal.

Although the Board of Directors of IIT, Kharagpur has approved for its extension centre here, the proposal is hanging fire in the HRD Ministry because of the proposed capacity expansion of IITs and IIMs to accommodate OBC students.

This despite the fact that the State Government has already announced 300 acres of free land for the institution.

Accusing the UPA Government of double standards, the Chief Minister told mediapersons that the Centre has done great injustice to the State by ignoring its rightful demand.

He will continue to pressurise the Centre for establishment of an IIT and IIM in the State, he added.

Dharitri: The minister had spoken the truth

2007-05-09T22:55:00.000-07:00

Dharitri reports that the minister answering the no call motion had said that upon the advice of teh scientific advisory committee an IIT is to be established in “Orissa”, but then she corrected herself and said “Bihar”. More interstingly, she also said that Minister Fatmi never said that an IIT will be established in Orissa. However, Minister Mr. Fatmi was in the Lok Sabha at that time and he was silent even when the Orissa MPs were looking at him for an answer.

Sambada: BJP does dharana in front of the Rajbhawan

2007-05-09T22:49:00.000-07:00

Samaja: Congress in Orissa in a fix about the IIT issue

2007-05-09T22:47:00.000-07:00

CM upset on the IIT issue: various news

2007-05-09T22:43:00.000-07:00

Sambada
Dharitri: 1,2

Various news items on MP's dharana on the parliament gate

2007-05-09T22:38:00.000-07:00

Statesman: MPs’ protest over IIT issue

2007-05-09T14:14:00.000-07:00

Statesman News Service

BHUBANESWAR, May 9: BJD and BJP MPs of Orissa staged a protest at the main gate of Parliament House today demanding establishment of an IIT in the state and denouncing the apathetic attitude of the HRD ministry.

Orissa does not have any institute of national repute ~ that is ~ IIT, IIM IIIT or ISI (Indian Statistical Institute), they said.

Yesterday, the demand of these MPs had been rejected by the minister in Parliament and they had staged a walkout after raising the issue through call attention notices.
Orissa is on the path of rapid industrialisation and an IIT would go a long way to help in its economic development by producing highly qualified technical and managerial personnel and also provide the much-needed research and development support, said the protesting MPs.
Mr Pyarimohan Mohapatra, Mr Baijayant Panda, Dr Prasanna Patsani, Prasanna Acharya, Bhatruhari Mahatab, Arjun Sethi, Mohan Jena, Brahma Nanda Panda, Sugrib Singh, Braja Kishore Tripathy, Pramila Bohidar ( all BJD), R N Pani, P Majhi, Juel Oram, D Pradhan, S Lath and Bhagirathi Majhi (all BJP) staged the protest.

Mr Sukhdev Singn Dhindsa of Siromani Akali Dal joined in support.

Mr Baijayant Panda, leader of the BJD in Rajya Sabha, maintained that such step-motherly attitude of the Centre had upset the people of Orissa and they will continue to voice their demand.

Significantly, none of the Congress MPs joined the protest, although the BJD-BJP combine had reportedly called upon all MP’s from Orissa, irrespective of party affiliations, to stage a joint protest.

Meanwhile, chief minister Naveen Patnaik described the Centre’s rejection of Orissa’s demand for an IIT as “unfortunate,” while BJP leader Mr Biswabhusan Harichandan said his party would take to the streets on this issue. Interestingly, some of the Congress leaders at the state level felt that the state deserved to have a IIT.

Analyzing some excerpts of the Indian Express article on “No IIT in Orissa”

2007-05-09T12:44:00.000-07:00

Following is an excerpt from the Indian Express article.

Replying to the calling attention, Minister of State for Human Resources D Purandareswari said … As she proceeded to read out a list of educational institutions in the state that were receiving Central assistance—it was in answer to criticism that the state was being discriminated against—the NDA members began protesting, claiming the assistance was paltry. At this BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra rose to say, “There has been injustice against Orissa,” and led the NDA camp in a walkout.

Two comments:

1. Its laughable that the minister was reading out educational institutions in Orissa that receive central assistance. Every state has such institutions. What we are talking about is institutions like IIT that are international brands; institutions that are fully funded by MHRD; institutions like IIT, IIM, SPA, IIIT, IISc, IISER and Central Universities.

2. It is significant that the NDA leader of the Lok Sabha led the walk out and said what he said. I hope if and when the NDA comes to power he and other NDA leaders will come to Orissa’s aid and make things more equitable.

BJP + BJD MPs in Dharana (picture from Kalinga times)

2007-05-09T10:47:00.000-07:00

From Kalinga Times.

Tathya.in: Rejection enrages Naveen

2007-05-09T09:45:00.000-07:00

Bhubaneswar:9/May/2007
It seems Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has not taken kindly the decision of the Central government in ruling out to set up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Orissa.

Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) Mrs. D Purandeshwari’s statement on the floor of the Lok Sabha on May 8, reportedly has enraged Naveen, said sources.

That is why CM has decided to once again raise the issue of IIT with the Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh.

A source in CMO told tathya.in that Naveen has sought an appointment with Mr.Singh in the next week.

CM is visiting New Delhi on May 13. During the meeting he will raise the issue of IIT and a Central University in KBK, said sources.

Out right rejection of the Orissa’s proposal for an IIT has not only enraged CM but also the people of Orissa have reacted sharply.

Large section of Non Resident Oriya (NRO) has raised their voice against the discrimination of Orissa by the Central Government.

Charting out details of investment by HRD Ministry in the country,leading NRO Chitta Baral of Arizona State University has brought home a point that Orissa remains in the lowest spot so far funding is concerned.

The statistics shows that the HRD Ministry was scheduled to spend Rs 4.07 on fully funded HRD institutions (like IITs, IIMs, etc.) per person in Orissa, while it will spend Rs 183.08 in Delhi, Rs 41.20 in West Bengal, Rs 33.4 in Karnataka, Rs 27 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 28.38 in Maharastra, Rs 17.73 in UP, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 33.27 in Punjab, Rs 8.13 in Haryana, Rs 7.90 in Kerala, Rs 9.02 in MP, Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar.

In other words Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa were at the bottom of per-capita spending by the HRD Ministry in its fully funded higher education institutions, he said.

Professor Baral said that an IIT will go a long way to provide high quality technical expertise to the rapidly industrialized Orissa for which CM must take up the issue at Central government level.

Dhirendra Kar, Vice President of Orissa Society of Americas (OSA), who is equally vociferous over the issue of IIT has lauded the efforts of our Members of Parliament (MP)s and requested them to carry out sustained campaign for the demand.

Mr.Kar has also criticized Union HRD Minister Mr.Singh’s double standard. While on one hand he is following the policy of appeasement on political grounds on the other he sermons the maxim of equitability in investment by HRD Ministry across India.

MHRD discriminates against Orissa: You be the judge!

2007-05-09T06:23:00.000-07:00

(This article, written by Chitta Baral, has been submitted to a main stream newspaper for publication.)

On May 8^th 2007, NDA MPs from Orissa brought a call attention notice in the Lok Sabha about an IIT in Orissa and dissatisfied with the response walked out of the parliament and were supported by other NDA MPs in this walkout. Speaking about this MP Baijayanta Panda of BJD is reported to have said, “Orissa is being continuously neglected by the Centre, especially by the ministry of HRD.” Is Mr. Panda right? Or is this a typical whining allegation that opposition parties from various states regularly throw at the government.

Let us look at the facts in terms of what the MHRD under the current government has done with respect to higher education institutions. In this we will consider the marquee institution types that are fully funded by the MHRD; the IITs, IIMs, IIITs, SPAs, IISERs, IIESTs (Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology, also referred to as IIT clones) and central universities. Since the UPA came to power at least 23 such institutions have been either created new or announced to be created or have been upgraded to the above kinds. Those institutions and the states they belong to are as follows:

IISER Kolkata, West Bengal (1)
IISER Pune, Maharashtra (1)
IISER Mohali, Punjab (1)
IISER in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (1)
IISER in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala (1)
IIT in Andhra Pradesh (1)
IIT in Rajasthan (1)
IIT in Bihar (1)
IIM at Shillong, Meghalaya (1)
SPA in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh (2)
SPA in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (2)
Upgradation of Bengal Engineering and Sc U to an IIT clone (IIEST), West Bengal (2)
Upgradation of Andhra Univ Engineering College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (3)
Upgradation of Osmania Univ Engg College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (4)
Upgradation of IT BHU to IIT clone (IIEST), Uttar Pradesh (1)
Upgradation of Cochin Univ of Sc and Tech to IIT clone (IIEST), Kerala (2)
IIIT Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu (1)
Allahbad University made to a Central University, Uttar Pradesh (2)
Manipur University made to a Central University, Manipur (1)
Arunachal Pradesh university made to a Central University, Arunachal Pradesh (1)
Tripura university made to a Central University, Tripura (1)
New Central University in Sikkim, Sikkim (1)
CIEFL Hyderabad made to a central university, Andhra Pradesh (5)

Can you find Orissa in that list?

No!

Does this prove that Orissa is being discriminated? Not conclusively yet, as one may say that the list does not have many other states such as Karnataka, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Assam etc.

But Karnataka has an IISc, Gujarat has an IIM, Jharkhand has an Indian School of Mines, Assam has an IIT and 2 central universities; all these fully funded by MHRD. Orissa has no IITs, IIMs, central universities, institutions of national importance etc. It has only one fully funded MHRD institution, one of the 20 NITs.

An earlier rough calculation showed that MHRD was scheduled to spend Rs 4.07 on fully funded HRD institutions (like IITs, IIMs, etc.) per person in Orissa, while it will spend Rs 183.08 in Delhi, Rs 41.20 in West Bengal, Rs 33.4 in Karnataka, Rs 27 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 28.38 in Maharastra, Rs 17.73 in UP, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 33.27 in Punjab, Rs 8.13 in Haryana, Rs 7.90 in Kerala, Rs 9.02 in MP, Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar. In other words Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa were at the bottom of per-capita spending by MHRD in its fully funded higher education institutions. We publicized this data last year and that may have played a role in IITs being allotted to Bihar and Rajasthan.

But it seems the MHRD got further upset with Orissa and decided to punish it some more. Even though Union minister of state for HRD MAA Fatmi is reported (in Times of India) on 28-8-06 to have said in Patna, “The proposal for one IIT for Bihar and two for Orissa and one Western Indian state besides one IIIT to Bihar will be included in 11th Five Year Plan,” the MHRD now says that there was no such plan. How low can some big shots at MHRD go to discriminate against Orissa? Apparently, much lower!

Indian Express reported that while answering the motion on May 8^th Minister of State for Human Resources D. Purandareswari “proceeded to read out a list of educational institutions in the state that were receiving Central assistance.” She was doing that apparently to counter that Orissa was being discriminated by MHRD. She should have looked at the list we give above and also looked at the list of educational institutions in *all* states. (We have both lists.) She would not have found Orissa in the first list and would have found that every state has myriad institutions that get central assistance. To use the later to try to show lack of discrimination against Orissa is laughable.

Unfortunately, this is not all that the MHRD with the current leadership has done. It started with the MHRD completely ignoring an NDA decision to establish one of the four National Institutes of Science in Bhubaneswar, and changing the name to IISERs and establishing them in other places. This led to a lot of protest in Orissa, but that did not bother the MHRD, which for some inexplicable reason has chosen to punish Orissa. Fortunately, the Prime Minister could not tolerate this blatant discrimination and established an NISER through his Department of Atomic Energy. This of course should not be used as an excuse to deprive Orissa, as various non-MHRD ministries have also established institutes or announced them all over India, including in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh, where 2 of the new IITs are to be established. This includes NIPER like institutes in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat and West Bengal; Indian institutes of Public Health in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, UP, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat and West Bengal; Indian Institute of Space Technology in Kerala, Maritime University in Tamil Nadu, etc. (We skip the AIIMS-like institutions as in that case along with 6 new institutes there is a plan to upgrade 13 existing hospitals; thus equitably covering all of India.)

So now that we have laid out the case, we wonder if you readers agree with us that MHRD blatantly discriminates against Orissa. If so do you think we should have MHRD ministers who do blatant discrimination against a particular state? Should the prime minister and the UPA Chairperson tolerate an MHRD that does such blatant discrimination and a planning commission that has allowed such discrimination? Such ministers and their blatant discrimination are danger to the fabric of India and completely go against the maxim of equitable distribution of resources that the prime minister has championed time and again.

Hence, the following appeal to the Prime Minister. Dr. Singh, Please pay close attention and ask the planning commission to pay close attention to actions that have added to the existing inequity and make amends. In particular, you recently said to the Orissa Chief Minister that you will take all steps needed to promote development in Orissa. Sir, please keep your word. An IIT is absolutely necessary for Orissa, which is trying its best to get out of India’s cellar by rapidly industrializing and building a knowledge hub around its capital.

While you are at it, please also check on the speculation that a tribal central university in the most backward district cluster of India, the KBK districts, proposed by the Orissa chief minister and whose rationale was reported to have been appreciated by Mr. Arjun Singh, is being hijacked. If it is true, please also make amends, perhaps by having a KBK Central tribal university in addition to the other one; otherwise your maxim of equitability across India may suffer yet another near death blow.

MHRD bias against Orissa

2007-05-08T20:13:00.000-07:00

During this UPA rule MHRD has announced and started several top-notch institutions across India, some are mentioned in a recent PIB press release. Following is a list of them

IISER Kolkata, West Bengal (1)
IISER Pune, Maharashtra (1)
IISER Mohali, Punjab (1)
IISER in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (1)
IISER in Thiruvanthapuram, Kerala (1)
IIT in Andhra Pradesh (1)
IIT in Rajasthan (1)
IIT in Bihar (1)
IIM at Shillong, Meghalaya (1)
SPA in Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh (2)
SPA in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh (2)
Upgradation of Bengal Engineering and Sc U to an IIT clone (IIEST), West Bengal (2)
Upgradation of Andhra Univ Engineering College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (3)
Upgradation of Osmania Univ Engg College to IIT clone (IIEST), Andhra Pradesh (4)
Upgradation of IT BHU to IIT clone (IIEST), Uttar Pradesh (1)
Upgradation of Cochin Univ of Sc and Tech to IIT clone (IIEST), Kerala (2)
IIIT Kanchipuram, Tamilnadu (1)
Allahbad University made to a Central University, Uttar Pradesh (2)
Manipur University made to a Central University, Manipur (1)
Arunachal Pradesh university made to a Central University, Arunachal Pradesh (1)
Tripura university made to a Central University, Tripura (1)
New Central University in Sikkim, Sikkim (1)
CIEFL Hyderabad made to a central university, Andhra Pradesh (5)

Orissa is among the bottom three (and now at the bottom) in terms of per-capita spending by MHRD in fully funded higher education institutions and it does not have an IIT, IIM, Central university, Institutes of National Importance, IIIT etc.

If so many new institutes are being made by MHRD, and Orissa did not have any of the above kinds of top-notch institutions to begin with, why a single one of the new ones fully funded by MHRD are not in Orissa.

IIT for Orissa: NDA stages walkout

2007-05-08T15:52:00.000-07:00

Express News Service

Posted online: Wednesday, May 09, 2007 at 0000 hrs

NEW DELHI, MAY 8: Standing up for Orissa’s demand for an Indian Institute of Technology, the BJP-led NDA members staged a walkout on the issue in the Lok Sabha as the Government said there were no plans for setting up the technical institute in the state.

The walkout took place after the matter was raised in a calling attention motion in the afternoon session on Tuesday, where BJD and BJP members—among them B K Tripathy, B Mahtab, K Swain, Prasanna Acharya and Dharmendra Pradhan—pointed out that despite a demand for the institute in Orissa, an IIT had not been set up.

The agitated Opposition members even warned that with its coal and iron ore deposits, Orissa could disrupt power supply to other states, but people in the state believed in cooperation.

Tripathy, the BJD’s leader in the House, claimed the state had fallen victim to politicking even though, according to him, the need to set up an IIT in Orissa had been proposed in the Eleventh Five Year Plan. Besides, IIT Kharagpur had approved the setting up of a full-fledged campus in the state, for which the Orissa government had promised to give land free of cost. “Will a greenfield IIT be located in the state? Why is there politicking? This is nasty politics,” Tripathy said, adding that an IIM should also be set up in the state.

Replying to the calling attention, Minister of State for Human Resources D Purandareswari said while every state would want an IIT, which was a global brand, three regions had been identified on the basis of a report presented C N R Rao. Under those proposals, the IIT in the eastern region would be set up in Bihar.

Regarding the proposal from IIT Kharagpur, she said the expansion would entail huge monetary commitment and it had been decided by the government that it should instead “consolidate” the other IITs. “We haven’t accepted the proposal of IIT Kharagpur,” the Minister said.

As she proceeded to read out a list of educational institutions in the state that were receiving Central assistance—it was in answer to criticism that the state was being discriminated against—the NDA members began protesting, claiming the assistance was paltry. At this BJP leader Vijay Kumar Malhotra rose to say, “There has been injustice against Orissa,” and led the NDA camp in a walkout.

BJ Panda in Statesman: Orissa is being continuously neglected by the Centre, especially by the ministry of HRD

2007-05-08T14:06:00.000-07:00

Centre rules out IIT in Orissa

Press Trust of India

NEW DELHI, May 8: The government today ruled out setting up an Indian Institute of Technology in Orissa, saying it has already approved three such institutes in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Replying to a Calling Attention Motion moved by MPs from Orissa demanding an Indian Institute of Technology, minister of state for human resource development Ms D Purandeshwari said the three new IITs were decided on recommendations of the Planning Commission and Prime Minister’s Scientific Advisory Council.

Raising the issue, Mr Brij Kishore Tripathy (Biju Janata Dal) said the government had initially approved setting up of an IIT in Orissa but later changed the decision.

“Minister of state for HRD Mr Mohd Fatmi had said in August 2006 in Patna that an Indian Institute of Technology would be set up in Orissa. Then, why was the decision changed,” Mr Tripathy asked.
However, Ms Purandeshwari said Mr Fatmi has denied having made such a statement. A new Indian Institute of Technology would cost over Rs 1,000 crore, she said adding the government had never decided to set up such an institute in Orissa.

Dissatisfied with her reply, BJP and BJD members staged a walkout.
Besides an Indian Institute of Technology, Mr Tripathy demanded an Indian Institute of Management and asked the government to approve a proposal by IIT-Kharagpur to set up an extension campus in Bhubaneswar.
Mr B Mehtab of the BJD said the UPA government had been ignoring Orissa and sought to know how much funds the human resource development ministry had spent for higher education in the state.
BJP member Mr Kharbela Swain asked the government what was the criterion for selecting locations for new IITs, while BJD’s Mr Prasanna Acharya said with many new industrial projects coming up, Orissa needed an Indian Institute of Technology for skilled manpower.

Call for dharna

Meanwhile, the BJD Rajya Sabha leader, Mr Baijayant Panda, has requested all MPs from Orissa, irrespective of party affiliation, to be join a sit-in dharna near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi on the premises of Parliament tomorrow for an IIT in the state, SNS adds from Bhubaneswar.
All BJD-BJP MPs from Orissa have decided to stage a dharna and others from the state are invited to join, he said.

Orissa is being continuously neglected by the Centre, especially by the ministry of HRD, said Mr Panda. In spite of the declaration by the HRD minister of state to have two IITs in Orissa last year, the Centre has decided to have three new IITs in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.
It is unfortunate that Orissa’s longstanding demand for Central institutes like Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Management continues to be ignored by the Central government, he observed.

More news reports come on the Parliament walk-out

2007-05-08T11:26:00.000-07:00

Tathya.in: IIT Orissa hits Central wall

2007-05-08T10:28:00.000-07:00

New Delhi:8/May/2007
Though today they have lost a battle but are hopeful of winning a war.

Members of the Lok Sabha from Orissa fought a united battle over the most emotive issue-setting up an Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in the state.

Both BJD and BJP members joined hands to put pressure on the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government to revise its decision over IIT in Orissa.

Raising the issue over a calling attention motion in Lok Sabha on May 8 here, Braja Kishore Tripathy (BJD) said the central government had initially approved setting up of an IIT in Orissa but later changed the decision on political considerations.

He said that the Minister of State for Human Resource Development (HRD) M M Fatmi, who announced at Patna in August 2006 that an IIT will be set up in Orissa.

The BJD MP asked then why the decision was changed at a later stage.

Besides an IIT, Mr. Tripathy demanded an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and asked the UPA government to approve a proposal by IIT-Kharagpur to set up an extension campus in Bhubaneswar.

BJD member Bhartruhari Mahtab alleged that the UPA government has been ignoring Orissa over economic and social development.

He wanted to know the amount of investment of central funds for the development of education in the backward state by the HRD Ministry.

BJD's Prasana Acharya said with the huge investment percolating to Orissa to set up mega industrial projects, the justification for an IIT and IIM is a foregone conclusion.

Mr.Achrya demanded a special treatment for the educationally backward state like Orissa from the HRD Ministry.

BJP member Mahameghabahan Aira Kharbela Swain also demanding the IIT, he asked the government what the criteria for selecting locations for new IITs are.

Jual Oram from BJP also expressed concern about the callousness of the Centre in neglecting the educationally backward state like Orissa.

The government Tuesday ruled out setting up an IIT in Orissa, saying it has already approved three such institutes in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Replying to the issues raised by the MPs, Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandeshwari ruled out setting up an IIT in Orissa.

She said the three new IITs were decided on recommendations of the Planning Commission and Prime Minister's Scientific Advisory Council.

However, Mrs. Purandeshwari said Mr. Fatmi has never made such a statement.

She said that a new IIT would cost over Rs 1,000 crore, adding the government had never decided to set up such an institution in Orissa.

Dissatisfied with her reply, BJP and BJD along with the other NDA members staged a walkout.

Later speaking to media BJP MP Mr.Oram said that as the UPA government setting up the educational institutions on political considerations, we will continue to hammer the government over the issue of IIT-Orissa till the demand is fulfilled.

He said “we are hopeful of winning the war, though we have lost a battle today as the people of Orissa are behind us”.

Govt rules out IIT in Orissa

2007-05-08T10:06:00.000-07:00

Hemendra Singh Bartwal

Email Author

New Delhi, May 08, 2007

First Published: 22:18 IST(8/5/2007)

Last Updated: 22:21 IST(8/5/2007)

The government on Tuesday turned down the demand for setting up an IIT in Orissa saying that it had already granted approval for three such institutes in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Amid loud protests from MPS from Orissa, Minister of State for HRD D Purandeshwari told the Lok Sabha that the location of the three new IITs had been decided on the basis of recommendations made by the Planning Commission and Prime Minister’s Scientific Advisory Council.

BJD member Brij Kishore Tripathy, who raised the issue in a calling attention motion, deplored that Orissa did not have a single central institution of higher education and had been neglected for long. Besides an IIT, he also demanded an IIM for the state and asked the government to approve a proposal by IIT Kharagpur to set up an extension campus in Bhubaneswar.

He claimed that the government had initially cleared an IIT for the state but changed its decision later. Minister of State for HRD, Mohammad Fatmi had stated as much in Patna last year, Tripathy said.

However, Purandeshwari asserted that Fatmi had denied having made any such statement. Setting up a new IIT would involve an expenditure of Rs 1,000 crore besides the cost of acquiring land, she stated.

Concern was also expressed on the issue by other BJD members like Bhartruhari Mehtab and Prasanna Acharya besides Kharabela Swain of BJP.

Expressing dissatisfaction with the minister’s reply,the NDA members staged a walkout from the House.

TOI: Govt says no to an IIT in Orissa

2007-05-08T06:10:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: The government Tuesday ruled out setting up an IIT in Orissa, saying it has already approved three such institutes in Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan.

Replying to a Calling Attention Motion moved by MPs from Orissa demanding an Indian Institute of Technology, Minister of State for Human Resource Development D Purandeshwari said the three new IITs were decided on recommendations of the Planning Commission and Prime Minister's Scientific Advisory Council.

Raising the issue, Brij Kishore Tripathy (BJD) said the government had initially approved setting up of an IIT in Orissa but later changed the decision.

"Minister of State for HRD Mohd Fatmi had said in August 2006 in Patna that an IIT will be set up in Orissa... then why the decision was changed?" Tripathy asked.

However, Purandeshwari said Fatmi has denied having made such a statement. A new IIT would cost over Rs 1,000 crore, she said adding the government had never decided to set up such an institute in Orissa.

Dissatisfied with her reply, BJP and BJD members staged a walkout.

Besides an IIT, Tripathy demanded an Indian Institute of Management and asked the government to approve a proposal by IIT-Kharagpur to set up an extension campus in Bhubaneswar.

B Mehtab (BJD) said the UPA government has been ignoring Orissa and sought to know how much funds the HRD ministry had spent for higher education in the state.

BJP member Kharbela Swain asked the government what the criteria was for selecting locations for new IITs, while BJD's Prasanna Acharya said with many new industrial projects coming up, Orissa needed an IIT for skilled manpower.

Shall we trust this report that IIT Kharagpur branch is still on?

2007-05-02T19:35:00.000-07:00

Shall we trust this News report in The Telegraph on May 3, 2007, PDF?

Goenka, who is also the chairman of the board of governors of IIT-Kharagpur, said the construction for an off-campus branch of the IIT would start this year. The state has already offered 300 acres of land near Bhubaneswar for the campus and is committed to provide all the necessary assistance for this purpose. The Rs 800-crore project would house nearly 5,000 students annually. The institute will impart technical education to around 5,000 students.

Lalit Patnaik's report on the Sambalpur rally

2007-04-29T13:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends,
I have just returned from Sambalpur. Intellectuals of Sambalpur and Students of UCE, Burla and local colleges made a grand show of strength, walking down the main street from GM college to Collectorate via Laxmi Talkies and Gol Bazar. The air was filled with voice of Swabhimani Odia; WE WANT IIT IN ORISSA. The other slogan was; Odia pua ekk hua. The most shouted slogan was 50 years old UCE, Burla deserves to be an IIEST like other Old colleges of Bengal, AP and Kerala. There were so many slogans.

Around 400 intellectuals and students assembled sharp at 5 PM, near GM College. Rally started at 5. 10 Pm and initially the people of Sambalpur were surprised and wanted to know exactly what it is. Leaflets were distributed by the students and whoever read it, joined the rally. Passer by stopped and raised their hand in support. The roof top people waved their hand at the rally. What a support. The rally was a instant success by the time it reached Laxmi Talkies. Police immediately sprang in to action and gave one way to the rally. By the time it reached Gol bazar the rally has already swelled to more than 1000 persons.

Collector was waiting to receive the Memorandum. He not only assured to send the Memorandum immediately to Govt of India but also discussed at length with the rally leaders( Surendra Lath(MP), P Acharya(MP), Er.Ashesh Padhi, Er. Deba Mishra, Er.Dinesh Pattnaik, Dr.Namita Pattnaik, Wonder kid Bhudhia and student leaders . Out side the Collectorate the slogan continued for 1 hour till the leaders came out of the meeting. After the meeting the Collector was kind enough to come down the stairs and wanted to meet representatives of Agamee Odisha from Bhubaneswar. Dr Santosh Tripathy, Student Leader UU Shri Prasanta , myself ,Swagata & Namita were just happy to interact with him. He expressed his sincere good wishes to our demand and promised us to give land, without any delay, to all prospective Organisations or Persons , who wants to open a Technical institute in that region. He also said that he has earmarked very good patch of land for that purpose. We thanked him and came back. Any body interested may contact him on telephone or in person.

The Sambalpur Rally was of high pitch and convinced us that Intellectuals and students are no more going to accept unjust to their motherland. All leading papers have covered it on front page on 29th April.

Kuddo to Er Ashesh Padhi, Er Dinesh Pattnaik, Er Deba Mishra, All students & all Sambalpur people for showing their strength and raising their voice in unision for the cause of Orissa.

Yours,
Lalit Pattnaik

Statesman's report on IIT related rally in Sambalpur

2007-04-29T12:40:00.000-07:00

Will Budhia’s call make wonders?

Statesman News Service
SAMBALPUR, April 29: After students, teachers, alumni and people of Orissa at large, it was the turn of the wonder boy, Budhia Singh, the marathon runner, to stake demand before the Central government for according IIT status to the University College of Engineering (UCE) at Burla that is celebrating year-long golden jubilee celebration.

The Sambalpur MP, Mr Prasanna Acharya and Rajya Sabha member Mr Surendra Lath were present at a rally participated by students, teachers and alumnus of UCE Burla here yesterday.

The rally ended with handing over a memorandum to the President, Prime Minister and HRD minister and Governor and chief minister of Orissa through the revenue divisional commissioner (RDC) of Sambalpur.

The president of the UCE alumni association, Mr SN Sanyal and its vice-president Mr Dinesh Patnaik gave a comparative picture to the RDC (Northern Division) of Sambalpur, Dr Ashok Dalwai, and narrated as to how the state had lacked in education compared to other states, although it had got a vast potentiality.

“There are seven IITs, six IIMs and 18 Central universities all over the country. But Orissa is yet to have any one of these till date,” the memorandum says.

Mr Sanayal and Mr Patnaik mentioned in the memorandum that the present HRD minister had declared the establishment of two IITs in Orissa and one in Bihar.

“While preparations are on in full swing to establish Indian Institute of Technologies in Bihar, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh, nothing is being done in respect of Orissa,” they lamented.

For the overall development of the state, alumni association says, according IIT status to UCE Burla by the Centre was necessary at a time the institution is celebrating its golden jubilee this year.

The association also presented the glorious history of this age-old engineering college of the state and its contribution for making the modern India.

MP Kharabela Swain demanded for IIT in Orissa in the parliament

2007-04-28T04:19:00.000-07:00

Samaja on April 28, 2007 reported that MP Kharabela Swain demanded for an IIT in Orissa during discussion on Science and Technology in the parliament.

Details in PDF

The Sambalpur rally memorandum: Ashes Kumar Padhy

2007-04-27T14:31:00.000-07:00

To : Shri (Dr.) Avul Pakir Jainulabdeen Abdul Kalamji

His Excellency the President of India, New Delhi, (presidentofindia@rb.nic.in)

: Shri (Dr.) Manmohan Singhji

Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, New Delhi (pmosb@pmo.nic.in)

: Shri Arjun Singhji

Hon’ble Minister, MHRD, Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi, (arjuns@sansad.nic.in)

: Shri Naveen Patnaikji

Hon’ble Chief Minister of Orissa, Bhubaneswar, (cmo@ori.nic.in)

Sub : Appeal for (1) A new IIT in Orissa

(2) Upgradation of Orissa’s oldest and finest engineering college ‘UCE, Burla’ as an IIEST

Respected Sirs,

This appeal is being raised to you by the intellectuals, students, and professionals of Orissa with a sense of deep anguish and high hopes. Statistics alone speaks volumes about the continued injustice meted to Orissa – may it be allocation for railways, planned grants, and among many, the allocation of central university & IIT to Orissa.

Union minister of state for HRD Shri MAA Fatmi had announced at the inaugural ceremony of NIOS on August 28th 2006 that 2 IITs in Orissa and one in Bihar would be included in the 11^th Five Year Plan. As history has always betrayed Orissa, three green-field IITs have now been planned in Rajasthan, Bihar and Andhra. People of Orissa are in complete disbelief as to how the proposed IIT could be shifted to other States, even as our hon’ble Chief Minister had announced 300 acres of land for the new IIT.

Similarly, when Joshi Committee and subsequently AnandKrishnan Committee evaluated few of the ‘old and quality’ engineering colleges to upgrade to the status of IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering, Science and Technology), Orissa’s legitimacy was ignored again. Hon’ble Chief Minister Sri Patnaik had recommended to MHRD for upgrading Orissa’s first engineering college - ‘University College of Engineering, Burla’, which has completed 50 years of service to the nation. A booklet containing the self-evaluation of in line with Anadkrishnan has been enclosed.

Five compelling reasons for setting up a green-field IIT in Orissa

1. If Science & Technology are determinants of a State's progress, no state in Republic of India needs IIT more than the poorest Orissa does.

India will truly be a developed country, when each State is developed. Orissa is a state where the poorest, the sickest and one of most illiterate Indians live. 47.15 % of Orissa’s population live below the poverty line against India’s average of 26.10%. Orissa has an IMR of 87 per thousand live births vis-à-vis all-India 68. Overall literacy rate of Orissa is at 63.61 %, well below All India 65.4%. No state can achieve robust growth in economy without sound base in science and technology, which are directly linked to its economic development. While states like Maharastra, Tamilnadu or Karnataka have leveraged the technology base to grow their economy, Orissa has suffered due to the lack of such institutions.

2. Bring correction to the Regional Imbalances, so glaring even after sixty years of Independence

The original Sarkar Committee on whose landmark report IITs were formed in 1950s, had recommended establishment of not less than four IITs – one each in the North, East, South, and West. The visionary report envisaged IITs to be as spread as possible so that benefits of technical excellence are distributed among larger population. Among the States in the South, West, North and the East, Orissa is the only one State that does not have single institution at the level of INIs (total 13 in India), IITs (total 7), IIMs (total 6), Central Universities (total 18). Orissa has no National level R & D establishments except the Regional Research Laboratory of CSIR, Central Rice Research Institute of ICAR and Institute of Physics. In comparison, the city of Hyderabad alone has over 40 centrally funded R & D institutions.

As union budget shows, Centre spends Rs 4.07 on HRD-NH (HRD ministry funded higher education institutions plus Institutions of National Importance) per person in Orissa, Rs 183.08 in Delhi, Rs 115.14 in Uttaranchal, Rs 41.20 in West Bangal, Rs 33.4 in Karnataka, Rs 28.38 in Maharastra, Rs 27 in Tamilnadu. This is gross mismatch and extreme injustice for 35 millions of people of Orissa.

3. After 60 years, Orissa sees an industrial turn around. It needs IIT like never before.

Orissa is poised to add in excess of 70 million tones per annum in steel, 4 mtpa in alumina refining,

1 mtpa in aluminium, 15 mtpa in petrochemical refining, 13000 MWs in power and 5 mtpa in cement. POSCO, Tatas, Mittal, L&T, Aditya Birla Group, Vedanta, Infosys, Satyam, TCS, Wipro are opening shops in Orissa. (a) One NIT notwithstanding, Orissa needs more quality engineers to feed the core and IT industries. (b) Industries need well-equipped laboratories for various testing and calibrations, just as IIT or CPRI, etc. (c) For various process development, industries require reference libraries and collaboration with institute on cutting-edge research. (d) An IIT attracts more university-spawned-high-tech-companies just as Stanford University and MIT have spawned many top-notch companies such as Google, Yahoo and Bose Electronics – all near the University.

4. A National level institute to address “regional challenges”

Natural Disasters have always stood against economic strides of the State. Orissa has faced 17 yrs of flood, 19 yrs of drought, 7 yrs of cyclone since 1965. 480 KMs of coastal line of Orissa remains prone to Tsunami. There is a compelling need of a quality research centers in areas of disaster preparedness and mitigation such as atmospheric science, monsoons, ocean studies, Concrete structures as Cyclone Shelters, emergency evacuation system, seismological observatory, etc.

With vast mineral resources, Orissa is fast turning out to be one of the ‘Quarries of the World’. But, we have many challenges like reduced water retention of hills, drying of rivers, deforestation, denuding of landscape, ecological degradation, pollution of river and ground water, etc. An IIT can formulate innovative mining and provide engineering solutions to sustainable development.

5. An IIT in Orissa will support the Engineering colleges and spread the knowledge grid

In recent years, about fifty private engineering colleges have sprung up in Orissa. An IIT would pave the way for teachers in the private engineering colleges to pursue higher degrees at the IIT. Colleges can collaborate with the IIT for research and recruit faculty from IIT PG and Ph.Ds.

Five reasons why UCE, Burla is a fit candidate for upgradation to IIEST

1. UCE fits the rank of 'old & quality' engineering college.

UCE has a matured, responsible, and rigourous academic system which has been carefully nurtured over 50 years. It teaches UG, PG and Doctorate programs and produced over 15,000 alumni. UCE is an ‘Autonomous’ College since 1992. UCE has earned the clearance of State Government for registration as Society with independent Governing Body. To know the real worth of UCE, one has to look into the companies like SAIL, NALCO, NTPC, L&T, JINDAL, Vedanta, ONGC, etc where its alumni have served strategic positions upto the Board of Directors. One can see the IITs, the foreign Universities where her alumni are faculties. UCE has made huge contribution to the society. Probably there is not a single dam, port, road, power plant, transmission line, industries, irrigation projects, etc in Orissa which has been created without overwhelming participation of UCE alumni. UCE faculties have proved their credibility with their eminence, number of doctorates produced, number of papers produced, etc. About 70% of its faculties today have PhD degrees.

2. UCE has unmatched infrastructure, among bountiful nature

At a time when independent India’s first dam project the ‘Hirakud Dam’ was nearing completion in 1956, UCE took birth at its foothill. UCE has 200 Acres land at the bank of large water body, with additional 300 acres of free land for expansion. UCE is 100% residential college for students, faculties, and staff. It has well developed infrastructures like academic buildings, lecture hall sizes, library, sports complex, computer center, laboratories, workshop, auditorium, high speed Internet connectivity, etc. It has the biggest auditorium, largest library, and 2^nd largest campus among all engineering colleges in Orissa. UCE is just 50 KMs away from the Jharsuguda airport.

3. An IIEST in Western Orissa, in close vicinity of KBK, can play larger role in societal development

UCE is in less-developed Western Orissa and close proximity to India's poorest ‘KBK’ region, where an IIEST can play catalyst in implementing schemes such as 'PURA' - i.e. improving the physical, electronic & knowledge connectivities. UCE is already functioning as State Govt’s Nodal Monitoring Agency for PMGSY (Pradhan Mantri Gramya Sarak Yojona), WaterShed project, etc.

4. UCE is uniquely positioned amidst industries & institutions where an IIEST can flourish.

UCE is at the epicenter of Orissa’s industrial hub, such as Mahanadi Coal Fields, Hindalco, Orissa Hydro Power Corporation, Vedanta Alumina, Aditya Aluminium, Bhusan Steel, Orissa Power Generation Corporation, UltraTech Cement, ACC Cement, Rourkela Steel Plant, NTPC, NALCO, etc. UCE is also surrounded by Sambalpur University, VSS Medical College, Chipilima OUAT. Collaboration with industries and institutions is bound to fetch far-reaching R&D results.

5. Poor State like Orissa cannot afford large fund to this fine institution & research centre

Being an agrarian economy, Orissa’s own tax base is low. The non-tax revenue, of which mining royalty contributes 60%, is also not increasing much. Whopping 62% of borrowings by Orissa in 2001-02 (RE) were utilized for financing interest payment. While Centre gives IITs Rs 100 crores per annum and and NITs get 30 crores, State Govt gives UCE about 4 crores a year. So, it is much better option to upgrade UCE as an IIEST than to lose a fine institution and a sound research base.

We make this appeal to consider our twin legitimate demands, i.e. (a) establishment of new IIT (b) upgrading UCE into an IIEST, with all fairness and give the people of Orissa their due.

With warm regards,

MPs and the IIT Orissa issue in the parliament

2007-04-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

Pdf (2 MB) at: http://iitorissa.googlepages.com/iit-orissa-booklet-mps.pdf

Word document (500 KB) at: http://iitorissa.googlepages.com/iit-orissa-booklet-mps.doc

Compilation of news items (9 MB): http://iitorissa.googlepages.com/Binder1.pdf

Digambara Patra's compilation of national labs distribution across India:
http://iitorissa.googlepages.com/state_wise_national_lab.pdf

========================================================

The text part of "IIT in Orissa: talking points"

IIT in Orissa: talking points

Following are some points that can be used to convince the other MPs, the PM, the planning commission etc. that the issue of an IIT in Orissa is an extremely important one; it has caused a lot of strife in Orissa; and appropriate amendments must be made at the earliest.

1. Our strongest point: A green field IIT in Orissa and a branch campus of IIT Kharagpur in Bhubaneswar had been decided in MHRD, so much so that On August 28th 2006, Union minister of state for Human Resources and Development Mr. M. Fatmi said the following Patna. (This was reported in Times of India on Aug 29th 2006, and available for everyone to see at
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1933613.cms and http://iitorissa.googlepages.com/PUmayfinallygetCentralvarsitystatus-.pdf )

2. Is this the India we want where newspaper headlines scream:

3 IITs for Andhra and none for Orissa.

The three IITs for Andhra here refer to the greenfield IIT that has been announced and the announcements that Andha University Engineering College and Osmania University engineering colleges will be upgraded to IIT clones (to be called IIEST – Indian Institutes of Engineering Science and Technology.) We should brandish copies of the news item that has the headlines "3 IITs for Andhra and none for Orissa" to other MPs, planning commission, and the PM.

3. Does MHRD think that Orissa is not a part of India?

Why does it repeatedly takes away institutes that have been announced for Orissa?

Why does not it pay attention that Orissa is among the bottom three in per-capita spending by MHRD on fully-MHRD-funded institutions?

A rough calculation detailed at http://equitableindia.org showed that MHRD was scheduled to spend Rs 4.07 on fully funded HRD institutions (like IITs, IIMs, etc.) per person in Orissa, while it will spend Rs 183.08 in Delhi, Rs 41.20 in West Bengal, Rs 33.4 in Karnataka, Rs 27 in Tamil Nadu, Rs 28.38 in Maharastra, Rs 17.73 in UP, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 33.27 in Punjab, Rs 8.13 in Haryana, Rs 7.90 in Kerala, Rs 9.02 in MP, Rs 4.87 in Gujurat, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar. In other words Bihar, Rajasthan and Orissa were at the bottom of per-capita spending by MHRD in its fully funded higher education institutions. Now that IITs have been allotted to Bihar and Rajasthan, it is imperative that the next IIT should have been allotted to Orissa. Since Orissa was skipped over, to correct this injustice an IIT should be immediately allotted to Orissa.

4. Repeated harassment of Orissa: the above has caused a lot of strife among the people of Orissa.

See the news coverage on the outrage this has caused all over Orissa. Is it the goal of the UPA government to create another strife-torn region? There is enough problems in India already! Why does the UPA government, especially its MHRD, repeatedly takes away institutes from Orissa after announcements have been made. This is akin to repeatedly showing food to a hungry person and then taking it away from him/her. Does not MHRD realize that such repeated teasing will make the hungry person seethe with rage. That’s what MHRD’s action has done to Orissa.

Why don’t the PM and planning commission stop MHRD from lighting such fires in the mind of the people of Orissa?

5. Dear PM: Please keep your word. Give us back the biggest infrastructure of all, the IIT that was announced for Orissa.

The PIB release reporting on (http://pib.nic.in/release/release.asp?relid=27010) the Prime minister’s latest meeting with our CM titled "PM REVIEWS PROGRESS OF INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECTS IN ORISSA" says:

"In his opening remarks the Prime Minister said that the Central Government would take all steps needed to promote development in Orissa. He assured the Chief Minister that procedural delays and inter-ministerial issues will be addressed and the State's interests protected."

Dear PM: The most important infrastructure project for Orissa is an IIT. Please stop it from being taken away after it has been announced by your ministerial colleague, Union minister of state for Human Resources and Development Mr. Fatmi , in Patna, on on Aug 28th 2006.

6. Getting other NDA partners on board: We must get other NDA partners (especially from outside Orissa) on board in our protest and demand for an IIT in Orissa. In this regard one may note that in 2002 the then minister of HRD Dr. M. M. Joshi is reported to have supported this. Following is an excerpt from that report.
(http://www.orissatv.com/pratidinnewsarchives.asp?passed=9/21/2002)

An Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) would be set up in the tribal dominated district of Koraput as soon as financial crises is over according to Union Minister for Human Resources Dr Murali Manojhar Joshi. However, in a letter written to the Koraput MLA Tara Prasad Bahinipati, Joshi informed that though the central govt. is interested to impart qualitative technical education, due to paucity of funds, this intention of the govt. is not getting adequate boost.He however, has written that the Centre is considering to open up an IIT in Koraput after its financial condition improves.

7. Parliament Question (needed for future steps): Please ask the following question in the parliament so that we can make an accurate calculation of how much MHRD spends on various states with respect to institutions that are fully funded by it.

Please give the 2005-06 and 2006-07 individual budgets (plan, non-plan and total) of the following fully MHRD funded institutions: Andhra Pradesh (NIT Warangal, Hyderabad University, Maulana Azad Urdu University), Assam (NIT Silchar, IIT Guwahati, Assam University, Tezpur University), Bihar (NIT Patna), Chhattisgarh (NIT Raipur), Delhi (IIT Delhi, JNU, Delhi University, Jamia Millia Islamia, School of Planning and Architecture), Gujarat (IIM Ahmedabad, NIT Surat), Haryana (NIT Kurukshetra), Himachal Pradesh (NIT Hamirpur), Jammu & Kashmir (NIT Srinagar), Jharkhand (NIT Jamshedpur, NIFFT Ranchi, ISM Dhanbad), Karnataka (NIT Surathkal, IISc Bangalore, IIM Bangalore), Kerala (NIT Calicut, IIM Kozhikhode), Madhya Pradesh (IIM Indore, NIT Bhopal, NITTR Bhopal, AVB IIITM Gwalior, IIITDM Jabalpur), Maharashtra (NIT Nagpur, NITIE Mumbai, IIT Bombay, Mahatma Gandhi Antarashtriya Hindi University), Manipur (Manipur University), Meghalaya (North Eastern Hill University), Mizoram (Mizoram University), Nagaland (Nagaland University), Orissa (NIT Rourkela), Punjab (NIT Jalandhar, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology), Rajasthan (NIT Jaipur), TamilNadu (NIT Trichy, IIT Madras, NITTR Chennai), Tripura (NIT Agartala), Uttaranchal (IIT Roorkee), UP (NIT Allahabad, IIM Lucknow, IIT Kanpur, IIIT Allahabad, Benaras Hindu University, Allahabad University, Babasaheb Ambedkar University), West Bengal (NIT Durgapur, IIT Kharagpur, IIM Calcutta, Viswa Bharati University, NITTR Kolkata), Chandigarh (NITTR), and Puducherry (Pondicherry University).

8. Anticipated challenges and countering them

The UPA government will definitely challenge the above points. Following are some anticipated challenges and their counter.

a. Orissa is already given an NISER.

(i) NISER (National Institute of Science Education and Research) will have mainly science disciplines. An IIT’s focuses are technological and engineering disciplines. So having a NISER does not overcome the need for an IIT.

(ii) NISER is funded by Dept. of Atomic Energy and not by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. Not only most other states have multiple fully MHRD funded institutions (such as IIT, IISER, IIM and Central University in West Bengal; IIT, IISER and Central Universities in Maharashtra, etc.) but two of the three states that have been picked for the greenfield IITs have been simultaneously granted other institutes that are funded by MHRD or other ministries. For example, Andhra Pradesh has been granted two MHRD funded IIESTs (Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology), which are referred to as IIT clones, an MHRD funded SPA (school of planning and architecture), a Ministry of Chemical and Fertilizers funded NIPER (National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research) like institute and an Indian Institute of Public Health. Similarly, Bihar has also been granted a NIPER like institute. Kerala, which is being given an MHRD funded IISER is being given a new Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology. Madhya Pradesh which is being given an MHRD funded IISER is being given a new SPA.

So why is Orissa being singled out, especially when NISER is not even from the MHRD, while many others are given multiple MHRD institutions or an MHRD institution and another institution.

b. Orissa has 12 central institutions.

This is ludicrous. Every state has many small central institutions. We are attaching a list at the end of this document that shows which states have which central institutions.

c. An IIT is a national institution; in which state it is located does not matter.

If one thinks of an IIT as a place where people go to study and get their degrees and evaluate its impact based on this aspect solely then it does not matter that much where it is located, and Mr. K is right. But an IIT is not just that.

An IIT is an infrastructure and it has and can also have huge impact on the local area (say within 100 kms) of where it is located.

An institution like IIT is (or will be) an engine of growth in and around the place where it is established. Examples abound: Stanford and Berkeley's impact on the Silicon Valley of California; Harvard and MIT's impact on the Boston corridor and our own IISc's impact on Bangalore are testament to this. (Stanford University and MIT have spawned many top-notch companies such as Google, Yahoo, and Bose electronics, all in the vicinity of the university.)

True, many of our existing IITs do not seem to have that much local impact. But that is changing. The example that is often bandied about as an IIT with no local impact, IIT Kharagpur, is now leading in this. It is helping in the development of a Biotech park near it http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1232755.cms and has also decided to create a super speciality hospital and start a medical college in Kharagpur.
(http://www.telegraphindia.com/1060322/asp/frontpage/story_5998168.asp)
All our IITs will soon have similar and much more local impact and a few decades down the road they could have the impact of a Stanford on Silicon Valley and MIT and Harvard on the Boston corridor.

Moreover, many companies would like to be in a location with an IIT because that provides opportunities for their employees to pursue a higher degree, and because they can collaborate with the IIT faculty and students on cutting edge research. Thus having an IIT makes an otherwise good location a bigger attractor to companies for establishment of branch or for relocation.

At present IITs are India's best graduate schools in engineering. They are the best place, and often are the only place within hundreds of miles, with a comprehensive array of M.Tech and Ph.D programs. In the last decade Orissa has developed 40+ engineering
Colleges (http://orissalinks.googlepages.com/engineeringcollegesinorissa), mostly private ones. However, only handful of faculty in these colleges have Ph.Ds or M.Techs. In contrast, the faculty in most engineering programs in US have Ph.Ds. Several efforts are being made by AICTE, UGC and other organization to improve the quality of faculty in engineering colleges across India. Such efforts include QIP (Quality improvement programs) in various IITs and selected NITs. However, such efforts are not enough as often faculty at a private engineering college, say in the Bhubaneswar area (with 26 and growing engineering colleges), would have to take leave and then pursue a higher degree as the nearest IIT and NIT are more than 300kms away from Bhubaneswar.

However if there was an IIT within an hour and half of Bhubaneswar then many of the faculty in the 26 (and growing) odd engineering colleges in and around Bhubaneswar would be able to pursue higher a degree in that IIT without taking complete leave of their job and without relocating.

As a proof that this theory works, we submit the example of the Institute of Physics in Bhubaneswar. It is a national institute admitting students from all over India. However, if one looks at its alumni http://www.iopb.res.in/~alumni/members/members.html one will
find that a large number of Ph.Ds are from Orissa and many of these Ph.Ds have gone on to be Physics faculty in various colleges in Orissa.

Here we want to state that we do not subscribe that an IIT in Orissa should have any preference or quota for students from Orissa. Its just a fact of life that, especially at the graduate level, for QIP, and for industry sponsored candidates, more local people join take advantage of the opportunity as it is easy for them to do that.

d. IIT location should be in a good accessible place. New IITs should be located in a backward area. There should be industries around the location where a new IIT is located.

We agree and will argue that a location an hour or hour and half south of Bhubaneswar (note: 1.5 hours one way is a typical commute from home to office in Mumbai) satisfies the above three criteria perfectly.

(i) A perfect location for a greenfield IIT is the Ganjam district of South Orissa (which is one of the most backward area of India) at a place within 1-1.5 hours of Bhubaneswar on NH-5 and 30-40 minutes of Berhampur on NH-5, the major town in South Orissa. This location will be the best of both worlds, close enough to Bhubaneswar to avail of all the opportunities there and help the 29+ engineering colleges in the Bhubaneswar-Berhampur corridor and yet in south Orissa and close to South Orissa's major city so as to impact the backward South Orissa region in many other ways. An IIT at such a location will help build a Bhubaneswar-Berhampur hi-tech corridor. Such a location in Ganjam district of Orissa will be in South Orissa the most backward region of India.

(ii) It will be close enough to Bhubaneswar, which is well connected to cities and towns all over India.

Considering only non-stop or one-stop without plane changes, Bhubaneswar has 5 daily flights to Delhi, 3 to Calcutta, 3 to Hyderabad, 2 to Mumbai, 2 to Chennai, 2.3 to Bangalore, 1 to Vizag, and partial connections to Ranchi and Raipur. More details are at http://orissalinks.googlepages.com/airportsandairconnectivityinorissa

Bhubaneswar has multiple daily direct trains to Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, a daily train to Mumbai, and trains to all corners of India (Guwahati, Kerala, Goa, Gujarat, Jaipur, Punjab, Rishikesh, Kanpur, Lucknow, Benras, Patna, Raipur, Bhopal, etc.) A map of Bhubaneswar's railway connectivity is at http://orissalinks1.googlepages.com/india-map-bbsr-direct-train.pdf and a table is at http://orissalinks.googlepages.com/rail-connectivity-bbsr.pdf

(iii) The Bhubaneswar area has sustained high quality research and educational institutions such as Institute of Physics, Institute of Life Sciences and Xaviers Institute of Mangament, and has many universities such as Utkal University, Orissa university of Agriculture and Technology, Utkal University of Culture, Ravenshaw University. Moreover, recently several several high profile higher education institutions have found the area to be suitable. This includes the proposed NISER (National Institute of Science Education and Research), the proposed Vedanta University (near Puri) and the proposed university by the Art of Living trust of Shri Shri Ravishankar. Thus there is no reason why an area within 1 to 1.5 hours of Bhubaneswar is not suitable for an IIT.

(iv) A world class institution needs local goodwill to grow and blossom. When there is a need then the local people will appreciate and help an institution like IIT located in their midst. Earlier, we established the need of an IIT in Orissa. Thus the people of Orissa, because of their need, will appreciate and help in the growth of an IIT in Orissa.

(v) Although Orissa is behind many other states in terms of industrialization, in recent years there has been tremendous industrial growth in Orissa and an IIT is necessary to nurture, support and amplify that growth. Besides existing industries such SAIL Rourkela, NALCO, NTPC, MCL, etc., following is a short list on new industry coming up in Orissa during the last three years:

Metal Sector: 45 projects over 70 mtpa of steel (22 of them partly commissioned) with more than US$45 billion investment; 4 new aluminum complexes and 1 mtpa aluminium smelter capacity under implementation with US$10 billion investment and rare earth projects worth US$0.5 billion. The investors in this sector include POSCO, Arcelor-Mittal, Tata Steel, Bhusan, Jindal, Essar, Hindalco, Vedanta, L&T Dubal etc.

Chemical and Petrochemical: 15 mtpa US$6 billion mega petrochemical by IOC; Deepak Fertilizers implementing 2 chemical projects at Paradeep, etc.

Energy and power: 13 thermal power projects under implementation with capacity of 13,500 MW with investment of US$14 billion and Reliance Industry hydrocarbon based power generation and gas grid (US$1.5Bn). The investors include Tata Power, Reliance energy, Sterlite energy, Mahanadi Aban, Monnet Ispat, Essar power, Lanco group, NavBharat Power, CESC and GMR energy.

Ports: 2 new ports are under construction at Dhamara and Gopalpur and three others at Jatadhari, Kirtania and Astaranga are in the pipeline with MOUs on them signed.

IT: Infosys, Satyam, TCS, Wipro, Genepact, Mindtree, Hexaware, etc.

IIT in Orissa: talking points (2 MB)

2007-04-27T10:51:00.000-07:00

This is a collection of points and counterpoints regarding making a case for an IIT in Orissa.(pdf,2MB)(word document, 500kb)

Booklet compiling the IIT Orissa issue in the media (9 MB)

2007-04-27T08:34:00.000-07:00

The various news items on the IIT Orissa issue that has appeared in the various Orissa based and national media has been compiled to a single 9 MB pdf file at is made available at http://iitorissa.googlepages.com/Binder1.pdf

I think if this compilation is shown by our MPs to other MPs, the planning commission and PM then it will convince them that this is a big deal for Orissa and it has caused a lot of strife in Orissa and they should pay attention and do something urgently.

Sambad: Orissa MPs prepares to raise IIT issue in the parliament

2007-04-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

Sambad reports Orissa MPs prepare to raise IIT issue in the coming session of parliament.

Details in PDF