For the State Government's failure to select land for establishing permanent campus of the National Institute of Technology (NIT), the High Court has issued a contempt notice to the State's Chief Secretary Utpal Kumar Singh and directed him to respond by May 15. The court has asked the chief secretary as to why contempt proceedings should not be initiated against him.
It will be recalled that former student of NIT, Jasvir Singh had filed a public interest litigation against the shifting of NIT from Srinagar in Pauri district and sought a permanent campus for the institute.
Earlier, the high court division bench had directed the State Government to identify four locations out of mountainous and plain regions for building the permanent campus for NIT and inform the court about these available locations by April 24. However, the State government failed to do so within the given time frame. Hearing the PIL filed against shifting of NIT from Srinagar to Rajasthan, the high court division bench had also expressed its dissatisfaction and remarked that the issue appeared to have been affected by politics and bureaucracy. The court had then asked the petitioner to file a contempt petition.
The petitioner in the case had earlier stated that the NIT is situated along a highway in Srinagar due to which a number of students have been involved in road accidents. The institute lacks a permanent campus due to which students registered here are studying at Jaipur in Rajasthan.
It is pertinent to mention here that local residents of Sumadi and other villages had also donated their land to the State Government for establishment of NIT but the institute was not established there.
The establishment of this institute in the mountainous region is viewed as a major step towards facilitating higher technical education which would help in encouraging employment and development while discouraging migration from the mountainous regions.
The State government has repeatedly stressed that the institute will not be shifted away from the mountainous region.
However, it has not been able to finalise land for establishing a permanent campus for the institute.