Staff Reporter
ITANAGAR, Oct 20: The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has appointed eleven new directors for National Institute of Technology (NIT). Rajiv Kumar Garg, a professor of industrial and production engineering at NIT Jalandhar has been appointed as the new director of NIT Jote, Arunachal Pradesh.
This is an important move considering the fact that recently NIT Jote witnessed massive protest by students who were seeking permanent director and improvement of basic amenities at the permanent campus site.
At present NIT is functioning from temporary campus at Yupia which is reportedly causing massive loss to exchequer as huge money is spent to pay rent.
Recently NIT authorities tried to shift 1st year students to the permanent campus site at Jote but the move backfired as students complained of lack of basic amenities and staged protest for 3 consecutive days.
Following the agitation, MHRD deputed an Under Secretary to visit Itanagar and sort out the issue. The MHRD official reportedly expressed unhappiness with the condition of Itanagar to Jote road and warned that unless said stretch of road is repaired, the institute will not be shifted to permanent campus.
State government had sanctioned Rs 12 crore for maintenance of Itanagar-Jote road last year and tender process for it started in March 2017. But till now PWD Doimukh division has failed to complete the tender process. It is reported that tender process could not be completed due to political interference.
Further, worsening the situation, the PWD claims that Rs 12 crore is not enough and they need atleast Rs 30 crore to fully revitalize the road.
Chief Minister Pema Khandu during his visit to NIT in December 2016 had promised to convert Itanagar-Jote into 2 lane highway. But the promise has not been fulfilled yet by the state government.
