Rift over IIT site in Rajasthan

By PARUL CHANDRA

New Delhi

May 26: It’s one decision that isn’t likely to be taken in a hurry. With the Rajasthan government failing to finalise a location for the new IIT that is supposed to come up in the state, the Union ministry of human resources development has written to the state government suggesting three cities. And none among the three is the location favoured by the Rajasthan government, Kota. Instead, the ministry has suggested that the IIT be located in either Jaipur, Jodhpur or Udaipur.

The logic behind the ministry’s suggestion, said sources, is that it wants the IIT located in a city which has an airport or is at least in close proximity to an airport. While all the three cities suggested by the HRD ministry have an airport, Kota doesn’t have one. The closest airport is in Jaipur, some 240 km away. In the meantime, Orissa chief minister Navin Patnaik too has written to the Centre requesting that the IIT which is to come up in his state should begin functioning from the 2008-09 academic session itself.

Incidentally, both the other two new IITs — in Bihar and Andhra Pradesh — fulfil this HRD ministry criteria. The one in Andhra Pradesh will be located in Isnapur near Sanga Reddy in Medak district and won’t be too far away from the twin-cities of Hyderabad-Secunderabad. In fact, state chief minister Y.S.R. Reddy, while announcing the Centre’s green signal for an IIT in Andhra Pradesh, had indicated that Isnapur was chosen in view of its proximity to the twin-cities. Likewise, the new IIT which will come up in Bihar is located some 40 kilometres away from state capital Patna, which has an airport. These three IITs will begin admissions from the 2008-09 academic session itself, though they will be functioning from the already-established IITs.

While the location of the IITs in AP and Bihar were finalised many months ago, the locational decision for Rajasthan remains in limbo. Simply because politicians in the state seem to be vying with each other to have the stamp of "brand IIT" in their region. Initially, there were reports that while the state government was in favour of locating the IIT in Kota, others favoured Udaipur as a location. Congress MLAs were said to be pushing for the IIT to be located in Jaipur. Then came a suggestion from yet another politician seeking that the IIT be located in Jhunjunu. More recently, there have been reports that the Rajasthan government even paid Rs 2.39 crores as TDS (tax deducted at source) to the income-tax department for a deal acquiring substantial land in Kota for locating the IIT.

In the political overtones to the battle for "brand IIT" in Rajasthan, state chief minister Vasundhara Raje accused the Central government in May of delaying the project in her state.