Proposed IIT in Orissa was shifted

To:  All

To
The President of India, Dr Abdul Kalam, Email: presidentofindia@ rb.nic.in
The Primeminister of India, Dr Manmohan Singh, Email: pmosb@pmo.nic. in
UPA Chairman, Ms Sonia Gandhi, Email: soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in

Dear President, Prime Minister and UPA Chairman, Government of India,

We would like to bring your kind attention that the proposed IITs in Orissa
which was announced by Minister of State, HRD, Mr. MAA Fatmi (Reference: *
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1933613.cms.)* has now been taken away from Orissa as there is no proposal for greenfield IIT in Orissa in the 11th five year plan.
(Reference: *http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS/India/IITs_to_come_up_in_Bihar_Andhra_and_ Rajasthan/articleshow/870671.cms*)

This aggravates the injustice done to Orissa by HRD ministry because Orissa
has been at the bottom of HRD funding along with Bihar and Rajasthan. While
injustices with Bihar and Rajasthan have been corrected, Orissa has once
again been neglected.

Orissa badly needs an IIT because Orissa is in the steps of adding in excess
of 70 million tones per annum (mtpa) capacity in steel making, 4 mtpa in
alumina refining, 1 mtpa in aluminium, 15 mtpa capacity in petrochemical
refining, 13000 MWs in power generation and 5 mtpa in cement manufacture.
More than 20 iron & steel projects have already commenced production during
the year 2006. Industries that have recently set up or are in the process
of setting shop in Orissa are POSCO, Tatas, Arcelon-Mittal, L &T, Vedanta,
Jindal, Infosys, Satyam, TCS, Wipro, MindTree, etc. Therefore the new IIT in
Orissa will help to supply quality engineers to these industries in the
state. In recent years more than 40 private engineering colleges have come
up in Orissa. An IIT would tremendously help the teaching and research in
these colleges, such as for collaboration, recruiting faculty from among the
IIT post graduates and Ph.Ds, and pave the way for teachers in the private
engineering colleges to pursue higher degrees at the IIT, so that it will
improve the quality education in these private colleges.

Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) is scheduled to spend Rs
4.07on HRD-NH (HRD ministry funded higher education institutions plus
institutions of national importance) per person in Orissa, whereas it will
spend Rs 183.08 in Delhi, Rs 41.20 in West Bengal (up from Rs 28.1),
Rs 33.4in Karnataka (up from 25.125), Rs 27 in Tamil Nadu (up from Rs 17.79), Rs 28.38 in Maharastra (up from 17.1), Rs 17.73 in UP, Rs 16.05 in Andhra, Rs 33.27 in Punjab, Rs 8.13in Haryana, Rs 7.90 in Kerala, Rs 9.02 in MP, Rs 4.87 in Gujarat, Rs 4.07 in Orissa, Rs 2.59 in Rajasthan, and Rs 1.87 in Bihar. Thus, Orissa is still at the bottom of MHRD funding and has been neglected by MHRD since independence (Reference *: *http://chitta.googlepages.com/2006budget1 or *http://www.baral.us/hrd-nh.htm and *http://equitableindia.org) despite the fact that Orissa is one of the backward and tribal dominated state and human development index of the state is one of lowest in the country.

Recently Department of Atomic Energy, Government of India has proposed a
National Institute for Science Education and Research (NISER) at
Bhubaneswar. This NISER should not be counted against a greenfield IIT as it
would mean to cost Orissa Rs 3250 crores. It is also the fact that NISER is
not funded by MHRD. Thus Orissa's position vis-à-vis MHRD funding is still
at the bottom three. Although we are particularly not against any state and
its people, two of the other states that are picked for the IITs have had
other institutes announced for them during 2006. For example, Bihar and
Andhra Pradesh each would have a new NIPER (National Institute of
Pharmaceutical Education and Research) like institute that are being
established by the Ministry of Fertilizer and Chemicals. The other states
where these institutes would be established are Gujarat and West Bengal.
(Reference: *http://pib.nic. in/release/ release.asp? relid=19376). Andhra Pradesh would have an IIPH (Indian Institute of Public Health) and other states where these institutes could be established are Tamil Nadu, UP, Delhi, Punjab, Gujarat and West Bengal. There are also two more institutes of Andhra Pradesh such as Osmania University College of engineering and Andhra
University College of Engineering and three others (IT-BHU, CUSAT, BESU) who
were short listed for up gradation to IIT cousin status and were designated
to be called IIEST (Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology.)
These are also to be funded by MHRD.

People of Orissa were the first to raise the voice nationally in 2005 and
2006 and argue for equitable distribution of HRD money across various
states. Two Orissa researchers came up with the notion of per capita MHRD
funding on higher education of various states and showed that Rajasthan,
Bihar, and Orissa were at the bottom.
[References: Hindu: *http://www.blonnet.com/2006/01/09/stories/2006010900080900.htm
Indian Express: *http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/3486/1774/1600/newindexpmay26.jpg.0.jpg
Hindustan Times: *http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2006- feb14-ht-nis.pdf*]

Its ironical that after MHRD seems to have bought into the index of per
capita spending on higher education HRD developed by the Orissa researchers,
the HRD ministry have punished Orissa. i.e., they picked Bihar and Rajasthan
which are also at the bottom of MHRD funding but yet skipped Orissa. In
their protest (Reference: *http://iiser. blogspot.com/) last year people of Orissa did not use any of the disruptive mechanisms like Rasta Roko, Bundhs etc and rather used modern methods such as letter writing, candle light rallies, writing in news media, talking to their representatives (MPs) and convincing them to talk with the central government. But instead of being rewarded people of Orissa are now being punished. In this time of strife and terrorism in many parts of India is this the message the government want to send to the people of India that "when one behaves violently the government would negotiate to give an IIT or similar institution, like the case of IIT and Central Institute of Technology in Assam as a deal with the Bodos, and Sant Longowal Institute in Punjab etc, and when one protests peacefully the government would punish such as taking away the proposed IIT from Orissa"?

We the people of Orissa still believe in peaceful, non-violent, and
non-disruptive protests and hence we are writing to you. We sincerely hope
that you will annul the punishment of taking away an IIT from Orissa and
allocate a greenfield IIT for Orissa in the 11th five year plan, as was
announced by the union minister of state for HRD Mr. Fatmi on August 28th in
Patna. Thank you and with warm regards.

Other References:
http://equitableind ia.org
http://www.baral. us/hrd-nh. htm
http://iits- 11thplan. blogspot. com/
http://newiits. blogspot. com/

Sincerely,

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Proposed IIT in Orissa was shifted Petition to All was created by and written by Digambara Patra (digpatra@yahoo.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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