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“If the Centre had selected the site on its own by
sending a site selection team, the institute
could have started
functioning so far”
Damodar Rout Senior BJD leader
Bhubaneswar, June 13: Senior BJD leader and minister Damodar Rout Saturday blamed the inordinate delay in the selection of a permanent campus for the proposed Indian Institute of Management (IIM) in the city on the Central government’s ‘politics’.
“The Union government is politicising the issue. It asked the state to select suitable locations for establishment of permanent campus of the proposed institute. But for IIM Gujarat, the Centre itself selected the site and not the state government,” Rout told mediapersons.
If the Centre had selected the site on its own by sending a site selection team, the institute could have began functioning so far, Rout said.
BJP spokesperson Sajjan Sharma refuted Rout’s allegations. “The Centre is not playing politics over the issue. It is the state government that is doing so. Its western Orissa leaders are staging protests and politicising the issue, not the Centre,” Sharma said.
According to a senior official of the employment, technical education and training (ETET) department, the state government had submitted its opinion June 5, but the Centre is yet to respond to it. Besides, the state has already budgeted Rs 1 crore for operating of temporary campus. It has also identified three sites Silicon Institute of Technology, Sambalpur University’s School of Information and Technology and a newly- built polytechnic college to run the temporary campus, the official informed.
The minister also commented on the slowdown of the CBI investigation into the chit fund scam in the state. “I don’t know whether the CBI has slowed down its probe or not. As CBI is a central agency, only Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan can reply it,” Rout said.