In what can be described as first of its kind move, MHRD has decided that a section of students at the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Uttarakhand will be shifted to another state.
Students in the first, second and third year of the B Tech programme at NIT-Uttarakhand will be moved to a satellite campus of the institute at NIT-Jaipur for three years, told Higher Education Secretary R Subrahmanyam, reported Indian Express. Final year B Tech students, M Tech students and PhD scholars will remain in Uttarakhand.
NIT-Uttarakhand students protest:
The students at NIT Uttarakhand have been on an indefinite strike since October 4 demanding an immediate change in the institute’s location after a third-year student of electrical and electronics engineering was hit by a car on NH-58 while she was en route to the class.
The students have demanded that the temporary campus which is along the accident-prone NH-58 be shifted to a safer location.
Approximately, 625 students of NIT-Uttarakhand will join the satellite campus by December 15 and stay there till the end of their programme. “Their degree, however, will be awarded by NIT-Uttarakhand,” Subrahmanyam clarified.
On being asked whether the satellite campus was equipped with the faculty strength and hostel facility to accommodate over 600 students, he said, “Some of NIT-Uttarakhand’s teachers will also travel to Jaipur to teach. That apart, NIT-Jaipur has built a new hostel that can accommodate the Uttarakhand students”, Subramanyam told.
Commenting on the move, NIT-Uttarakhand Registrar Col Sukhpal Singh said, “Shifting the institute to Jaipur is an option we are looking into. However, the details for shifting the campus are being worked out by the HRD Ministry.”
NIT-Uttarakhand was sanctioned in 2009 under the 11th five-year plan along with 10 other campuses. The first batch of students was admitted in 2010. Currently, the institute has been operating from a temporary campus in Uttarakhand’s Srinagar Garhwal town.
The institute has 980 students — 866 engineering students, 90 M.Tech students, and 24 PhD scholars. All of the students vacated the campus on October 23 and October 24 stating they would not return to the “unsafe” and “ill-equipped” Srinagar campus.
The HRD Ministry had first decided to move the institute’ temporary campus to the buildings that earlier housed the Indian Drugs and Pharmaceuticals Limited in Rishikesh. However, the state government refused to move it to any place outside Srinagar.
State Higher Education Minister Dhan Singh said, “We have not been informed yet about the decision to shift the NIT to Jaipur. Our government is not in favour of shifting the NIT to any place outside Srinagar. We have already provided land for the construction of permanent NIT campus in two parts — at Sumari and Jaletha areas near Srinagar. We had recently spoken to (HRD Minister) Prakash Javadekar and he assured us that the permanent campus (at Sumari and Jaletha) would be ready in two years.”
The students have been on the strike since past two months and this move may likely make them stop the protests.
(with inputs from The Indian Express)