Hearing on a petition regarding the construction of National Institute of Technology (NIT) permanent campus at Srinagar, the high court of Uttarakhand expressed displeasure at the Central and State Governments.
The court observed that 10 years has passed since the NIT was approved but the state government had failed to identify land for its permanent campus. Both the Central and State Governments appear to be apathetic towards establishment of this institute.
The High Court division bench of Chief Justice Ramesh Ranganathan and justice NS Dhanik has directed the State Government to identify four sites for the NIT permanent campus and submit a detailed report in the court by April 24.
During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioner informed the court that the government is not facilitating new admissions in NIT which points towards the intentions of the government to close the institute. Only the final year students are studying at the Srinagar campus while the first and second year students are studying in the satellite campus at Jaipur in Rajasthan.
In the past, the Centre has stated in its affidavit that the State Government had not provided suitable land for establishment of the NIT.
On the other hand, the State government ahd stated in its affidavit that land had been provided to the Central Government for establishment of the institute though the Centre was not setting up the institute at the said site.
In the past, the residents of Sumadi, Niyal and other villages in the area had stated in their application that they had donated 120 hectare land in Srinagar for establishment of NIT to enable development, employment generation and mitigation of migration.
During 2009, the government had paid Rs nine crore for transfer of this land and also spent Rs four crore for construction of boundary wall. However, still the government apparently intends to establish NIT in plain area, it was alleged.
In the past the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee had conducted a geological examination of this land though the final report is still awaited.
It should be mentioned here that former student of the institute, Jasvir Singh had filed a public interest litigation in the high court stating that nine years after the institute structure was created, it is still without a permanent campus.
The students have been demanding a permanent campus for quite some time but the government has remained apathetic, the petitioner had stated.