Enraged over the delay in the construction of a permanent building of National Institute of Technology (NIT) at Sumadi in Srinagar, the people of Sumadi and villages in this region of Pauri district have decided to launch an agitation against the failure of the authorities to overcome the delay in construction of a permanent building for the NIT here. A Panchayat has been called on October 2 by the villagers to decide the course of action to be taken and to finalise the date on which the full-blown stir would start. “We have struggled a lot to get the institute come up. The administration sitting on the construction is paining us a great deal,” said a local, adding that they would no longer sit idle.
It is worth mentioning here that in order to enable the facilitation of technical education in this mountainous region, the villagers and Panchayat had donated about 125 hectare land free of cost for construction of the NIT building.
The Centre had sanctioned establishment of the NIT way back in 2009. The institute has been running in the campus of the polytechnic and ITI located at Srinagar since 2010 by way of temporary arrangement. Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat had laid the foundation stone of the permanent building in February 2014. The agitated locals say that despite two and half years having passed since the foundation was laid by the Chief Minister himself, the boundary wall was what had come up so far in a period of about two years. The villagers said that they had been forced to resort to protest due to the protracted delay in provision of a permanent building for the NIT Sumadi. The Sumadi Gram Pradhan Durga Prasad Kala, Gram Pradhan of Nayalgarh, Virendra Ghildiyal and the local Pragatisheel Manch criticised the protracted delay in construction of the NIT building allegedly caused by official apathy. They said that a Panchayat will be held at Chamrara to decide the phases and outline of the agitation. The Panchcayat will be attended by local villagers and representatives of various organisations.
On the other hand, the Pauri district magistrate Chandra Shekhar Bhatt dismissed the allegation, saying that the district administration was not responsible for the delay. “Works, including cutting of trees on the land sanctioned for the NIT building, have been completed. The NIT administration is responsible for the delay,” DM said.