Land issue hindered training academy in Bengal: Official

All India Council for Technical Education, that is building four training and learning academies in the country, could not come to an agreement with West Bengal over the land for the construction of a similar institution here, a top official said here on Sunday.

The national-level statutory body for technical education is set to establish the country's first AICTE Training and Learning (ATAL) Academy in Jaipur, with three other academies slated to come up in Gujarat's Baroda, Kerala's Thiruvananthapuram and Assam's Guwahati by next year.

"For building the institute we require infrastructure and land. So, we are building training academies in states which provided us land for free. However, Telangana, Maharashtra and Bengal have not allotted any land yet. We have got in touch with the Bengal government two-three times. However, they have asked us for market price, which is not affordable," Sahasrabudhe told reporters on the sidelines of an event here.

"We haven't bought land in any of the states. Everywhere, we got it free of cost from respective state governments. So, we cannot change the policy. This is a central government project. The government will not buy land from another government," he said.

In a bid to introduce upgraded teaching methods and modules to make technical education more effective and accountable, AICTE is building the training academies where the faculties would be trained on the eight-module course.

"The faculties will be attending the training for five months in the academies built in their respective zones. Thereafter, they will practise whatever they have learnt, by going back to their respective institutions," the official said.

He said the training would be mandatory for new teachers from 2019 while it would be necessary for the existing teachers and assistant teachers while applying for promotions.

--IANS

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