In the case pertaining to construction of the permanent campus of National Institute of Technology (NIT) at Sumadi in Srinagar area of Pauri district, the high court of Uttarakhand has directed the Central Government to respond within three days regarding construction of the institute’s permanent campus.
The high court has also asked the Centre as to by when will it take a decision regarding construction of the institute’s permanent campus. Further, the division bench headed by chief justice Ramesh Ranganathan has also directed that the geological report of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee and Central Public Works Department should be presented in the court.
It will be recalled that a former student of NIT Srinagar, Jasvir Singh had filed a public interest litigation in the high court stating that nine years after establishment of the institute it was still without a permanent campus. The students have been demanding a permanent campus for quite some time but the government has remained apathetic to their demand. The current building is in a dilapidated condition which could also result in a mishap at any time, the petitioner has stated.
Earlier, the high court had directed the state government to identify four locations out of mountainous and plain regions as potential sites for establishing a permanent campus of the NIT. The government was unable to submit the list of these potential sites. Due to this, the court had on Tuesday issued a contempt notice to the chief secretary.