Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, May 11: The Union government is yet to decide on the location for setting up the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the state, though barely two months remain for admissions to the institute to begin.
First the Centre wanted to set up the institute near Bhubaneswar, which is a possible location according to the guidelines of the Union ministry of human resource development (MHRD). Later, it sought opinion from the state over setting up the institute in the Sambalpur region.
The state government has submitted all required information to the Union ministry over the establishment of IIM in near Bhubaneswar and in Sambalpur. “The Chief Minister twice wrote to the Centre over the issue, but the Centre is yet to respond to it,” said a senior official of the employment, technical education and training (ETET) department.
BJD supporters took out a rally Monday from Balibandha in Sambalpur district under the leadership of Rairakhol MLA and district BJD president Rohit Pujari and Sambalpur MLA Raseswari Panigrahi.
“Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik replied to the MHRD letter in the first week of March recommending Sambalpur as the preferred location to set up IIM under the Centre’s relaxed norms,” asked Pujari.
“We are not going to sit idle till our demand is met. Today we sent 5,000 postcards to the President requesting him to intervene in the matter,” he said.
“It’s already two months now and the Centre has not yet sent a team for site verification. When the state has recommended Sambalpur as the location, what is holding things up?” asked Panigrahi.
However, senior BJP leader Suresh Pujari blamed the state government for delay. “The ball is still in the state government’s court as it has not withdrawn its recommendation favouring the setting up of the institute in Bhubaneswar,” he said.
