IIM at Jammu: Javadekar, Omar lock horns on twitter

Union Human Resource and Development (HRD) Minister Prakash Javadekar and National Conference leader Omar Abdullah entered into a twitter spat over the Union Cabinet's decision to approve the establishment and operationalisation of Indian Institute of Management (IIM) at Jammu in a transit/temporary campus at Old Government College of Engineering and Technology from the academic year 2016-17.

The former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister termed the move as "blatant partisan politics".

"Jammu gets the IIT & gets the IIM also. Where have all those voices that called for balanced regional development in J-K disappeared?" he tweeted.

In response to the allegation, Javadekar tweeted, "Better not to politicise education @abdullah_omar. You know there will be off campus of #IIM in Kashmir Valley,"

Abdullah responded to the above tweet and wrote, "You mean an "Out Campus"! Thank you for your tweets but none of them address the inherent imbalance of your decision reg IIT & IIM."

The HRD Minister further said that Omar should have helped streamline the Prime Minister's scholarship programme which was mismanaged during 2011-2014.

Omar responded tweeting, "According to you the whole country was mismanaged from 1947 to 2014 and you are too senior to me in age for me to argue with you."

The HRD Minister hit back posing a series of questions to the former chief minister.

"U know @abdullah_omar Centre has sanctioned Rs100cr for NIT Srinagar modernisation. U should help academic session begins sooner there," he tweeted.

"You know @abdullah_omar that Centre has granted Rs 50 cr for 7 Girls hostels in J&K of which 3 will be in the Kashmir Valley and that Tequip III has special focus on J&K," he said.

"You know @abdullah_omar Centre increased super numerical quota from 2-10 for J&K students this year," Javadekar said in a series of tweets.

The project approved by the Cabinet will involve a cost of Rs. 61.90 crore in temporary campus for the initial four years from 2016 to 2020.

The student strength intake for this year in the Post Graduate Diploma Programme (PGDP) in Management is 54 which will progressively go up to a cumulative student strength of 120 in the 4th year.

Meanwhile, steps would also be taken up for setting up campus at Jammu and an out-campus in Kashmir region. The Detailed Project Report for the permanent campuses is under preparation and thereafter the process for setting up of the campuses would start.

The Cabinet also approved formation of an IIM Jammu Society under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. IIM Jammu will be run and managed by the Society with a Board of Governors (BOGs) to be constituted by the Government of India, which will administer the Institute and would be responsible for establishment and operationalisation of the Institute.

This is a part of Prime Minister's development package for Jammu and Kashmir. The Institute coupled with opening of IIT at Jammu, modernization of NIT Srinagar and opening of two new AIIMS institutions, one each in Kashmir region and Jammu region, would go a long way in meeting the requirement of high quality living and education in Jammu and Kashmir.

At present, there are nineteen IIMs. Out of these, thirteen IIMs are located at Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode, Shillong, Ranchi, Raipur, Rohtak, Kashipur, Trichy, Udaipur. Another six IIMs which have been started in 2015 are located at Amritsar, Sirmaur, Nagpur, Bodhgaya, Sambalpur and Vishakhapatnam.