Post News Network
Sambalpur, April 18: The demand for establishment of the proposed Indian Institute of Management in Sambalpur received a shot in the arm with People’s Forum for IIM in Sambalpur, a local outfit, warning intensified agitation against any attempt to shift the location of the premier institution outside the district.
Addressing a press conference at a hotel here Saturday, members of the organisation flayed the state as well as the Centre in politicising the issue of IIM and urged the state government to clarify its stand on the location of the institution.
RTI activist Hemanta Kumar Panda from Bolangir, while addressing the conference, said Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik has been demanding establishment of premier educational institutions before the Union government in backward areas of the state. However, he has been following a dilly-dallying attitude in deciding the location of the institution, he alleged.
He further alleged that the state government had recommended to the Centre to set up the IIM in Sambalpur fearing public agitation. However, it is difficult to understand why the Union government is not ready to accept the proposal of the state government in establishing the IIM in Sambalpur, he said while urging both the Centre and the state to not play politics over the issue.
Professor Aditya Prasad Padhi, who was present in the conference, said a representative of the organisation is scheduled to visit New Delhi and meet Union HRD minister Smriti Irani and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to press for the
establishment of IIM here.