After the Centre’s proposal for an Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in Odisha, various organisations and individuals here have resumed their demand that the premiere institute be set up in the Steel City.
The demand has gained momentum after the Union HRD Secretary wrote a letter to the Odisha Chief Secretary for sending three probable places which are well connected by road, rail and air for the establishment of the institute. Besides, the State Government was asked to provide 200 acres of land.
In view of the development, the members of Sachetan Nagarike Mancha held its emergency meeting on Thursday and urged both the State and the Centre to set up the institute at Rourkela.
According to Mancha general secretary PP Ray, the forum has forwarded a memorandum to the Union HRD Minister and sought appointment to appraise her why the Steel City is the best place for the IIM. Copies of the memorandum copy were also sent to Sundargarh MP and Union Tribal Affairs Minister Jual Oram, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and Rourkela MlA Dilip Ray. As BJP has won the sole Parliament seat from Odisha in last elections in which Rourkela has the maximum contribution, so the forum expects that Rourkela, fulfilling all the basic requirements, will be considered to be the most suitable place.
Ray argued that Bhubaneswar is already overcrowded with many Central institutions like the IIT, AIIMS, NISER and NIFT. Besides, many top-level private institutions including Xavier University are located in and around the State capital city. Secondly, though the first public sector of the State, the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP), is at Rourkela since 1957 and the city is called the industrial capital of the State, but it was not given much of priority so far as establishing professional and technical educational institutions is concerned. Thirdly, ignoring the Steel City on the pretext of lack in air connectivity has no merit because Rourkela has an RSP managed air strip, which can be upgraded, Ray argued.
He stated that the initiation for an ultramodern air port is already on at Jharsuguda which near Rourkela. The city comes on Howrah-Mumbai train line and also close to Tata, Raipur and Ranchi. Apart from the RSP, the district has OCl Cement Factory, l&T, many other industrial units and Jharsuguda is also growing fast, he stated.
Noted social worker of Sundargarh district Srikant Satpathy, who has been working on the RTE, said if an IIM is set up here, many aspirants for management course would be benefited and visiting faculties from Ranchi and Raipur can come here easily to take the classes initially.In past, Rourkela was deprived of many of its genuine dues including the proposed ESIC Medical College. To start with, the IIM campus can run from the NIT and BPUT premises, added Satpathy.Similarly the members of Rourkela Jagarana Mancha staged a demonstration in front of the Rourkela ADM office and submitted a memorandum in favour of the Union HRD Minister and Chief Minister Patnaik urging for the establishment of the IIM at Rourkela.
A host of other organisations and individuals also demanded the IIM for the Steel City and threatened stir if the demand was ignored.