Presidency campus at Kurseong - Mamata to lay the foundation stone

Writes: Mrinalini Sharma
Kurseong, Sept. 9: A team from Nabanna inspected the area near Victoria Boys' School and Dowhill School today as a prospective site for the hill campus of Presidency University and officials said the chief minister would lay the foundation stone of the institution on September 14.
Presidency campus at Kurseong - Mamata to lay the foundation stone
A team from Nabanna inspected the area near Victoria Boys' School and Dowhill School
The comments of the state officials confirmed that the chief minister was moving ahead with her plan to set up the second campus of Presidency University in the hills, despite the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha's reservations.

Today, a team led by Vivek Kumar, principal secretary of the state higher education department, surveyed the area. "The chief minister will lay the foundation stone of the second campus when she visits the Darjeeling hills on September 14. This is a joint inspection by principal secretaries of departments of higher education, school education, forest and PWD to check preparations for the ceremony before her visit," Kumar said.

Arnab Roy, the principal secretary of school education department, Chandan Sinha, the principal secretary of environment and forest department, and Indevar Pandey, the principal secretary of PWD, accompanied Kumar today.

"We are here on a daylong visit and we are surveying the area around the two schools to select a spot for the campus," Kumar said.

-OVERMATTER-

On August 25, Mamata had announced in Darjeeling that she had sanctioned Rs 30 crore for the Presidency campus

Morcha chief Bimal Gurung who had shared dais with the chief minister while she made the announcement had later conveyed his disapproval, through a Facebook post and a letter, and asked the chief minister to reconsider the decision. He had said the plan to set up a campus of Presidency University may adversely affect the central government's plan to set up a central varsity, which has been assured in the GTA agreement.

"At this juncture, appreciating the motive of the Hon'ble CM, the people of the Hills would appeal to her to reconsider the decision as it may have an adverse impact and the Centre may back out on the decision on the establishment of the Central University," Gurung wrote on Facebook.

Sources in Trinamul - some party leaders from the hills were present today - said an open space beneath the Victoria Boys' School has been finalised for the campus.

"There are also plans to organise a ceremony to mark the establishment of the campus on September 14 at the Victoria playground above the selected spot," a source said.

Today, Morcha general secretary Roshan Giri said: "A central varsity for the hills is a very important and long-pending demand of the people which has been promised in the GTA agreement. We have submitted a detailed project report to the Union ministry of human resource development and an area of 500 acres has been identified in Darjeeling."

He added: "Setting up a second campus of Presidency in Kurseong may cause the Centre to withdraw its plans to set up a central varsity. The state could have put on hold the second campus plan until the project of setting up a central varsity came through."

Source: Telegraph

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