The All Nyishi Youth Association (ANYA) has served a 30-day ultimatum to the Rajiv Gandhi University (RGU) vice-chancellor to evict all the land encroachers and claim back the encroached land belonging to the university. The encroachment of land at RGU has become matter of serious concern. The land donors claim that in 1985 an area measuring 302 acres had been donated for establishing the Arunachal University, which was later renamed as RGU. Unfortunately, over the areas, a large chunk of land has been encroached on by private individuals, as well as by employees of the university. The university authority has also been accused of altering the actual map of the university.
Governor BD Mishra has also put a lot of pressure on the authorities to reclaim the encroached land. However, till date the authorities have failed to reclaim the university’s ‘missing’ 64 acres of land. RGU is the lone central university of the state, and by failing to protect it from land grabbers, the state government is sending out a wrong message to the rest of the country. What is worrying is that even after the intervention by Governor Mishra, the issue is yet to be resolved. The ANYA has made the right move by demanding removal of the encroachers and threatening to launch an agitation if the RGU authorities fail to act on its demand. It is the duty of everyone, including the student unions and civil society bodies, to protect the land belonging to the educational institutes.