[Taba Ajum]
ITANAGAR, Dec 13: In a big boost to the effort to shift the National Institute of Technology (NIT) from Yupia to its permanent campus in Jote, the institute’s Board of Governor Chairman Prof Anil D Sahasrabudhe announced on Wednesday that the NIT’s undergraduate (UG) classes would be held at its permanent campus from July 2019 onwards.
“With whatever limited fund that we receive, the priority will be on finishing construction of the boys’ and girls’ hostels. There is need to improve medical facilities, internet, road, mobile, connectivity, etc, in the Jote campus, and for this we need the state government’s support. We will make every effort to shift the undergraduates to the permanent campus by July next, and within the next two years the whole NIT will be shifted to Jote,” Prof Sahasrabudhe said.
He blamed reckless construction work for the delay in shifting.
“The work for the entire infrastructure started at one go but we could not finish even one building properly. The building should have been constructed on need basis,” Prof Sahasrabudhe said.
When it is completed, the permanent campus in Jote would be much better than the temporary campus in Yupia, he said.
On the matter of the contractor’s pending bills, he said the bills would be cleared once they get the finance ministry’s approval.
“Rs 280 crore was provided for the first phase of construction, but the expenditure exceeded it. Payments of pending bills will definitely be made, but it is subject to clearance from the finance ministry,” he said.
The professor gave assurance that all the problems ailing NIT Arunachal would be sorted out in a systematic manner in the days to come.
The institute had been functioning without a permanent director for the last several years, which also affected its growth. The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) appointed Prof P Mahanta as its new director in September this year.
The NIT’s foundation stone in Jote was laid way back in February 2013 by the then union HRD minister MM Pallam Raju. The institute is operating out of a temporary campus, the Industrial Training Institute (ITI) building, in Yupia since its establishment in July 2010.
In October 2017, efforts were made to shift a few batches of students to Jote. But the move was strongly resisted by the students, who refused to obey the order of the institute’s authority. It resulted in clashes between the students and the authority, and the move failed.
It is believed that the MHRD has been putting immense pressure on the NIT authority to shift to the campus in Jote. The ministry is reportedly upset over the massive fund required to run the institute from Yupia. While it is functioning from the ITI building, the students have been put up in rented hostels spread across Nirjuli, Doimukh and Lekhi.
A huge fund is required to pay the rents, and the MHRD is reportedly unhappy with the situation.
