Central institutes facing land hurdles in North East: Minister

Union minister Satyapal Singh today expressed concern over the frequent land hurdles faced by academic institutes, such as NIT and IIM, in the North East and said the Centre will take up the matter with the state governments of the region.
Briefing reporters here after a meeting with vice chancellors of universities and directors of IIT, NIT, IIIT and IIMs, the minister of state for human resource development said some institutes in Manipur and Sikkim have been running from temporary campuses in absence of adequate infrastructure.
"The Union government doles out funds for construction of infrastructure of these institutions while the state allots land for them free of cost. We are following up with these state governments on the matter," Singh said.

The IIIT in Manipur and NIT in Sikkim do not have a proper set up, he said.
"The NIT-Sikkim was assured land in Gangtok sometime ago but it still continues to run from a temporary campus at Ravangla with limited infrastructure," Singh stated.
The minister pointed out that retention of faculty is another other major problem faced by the premiere institutes of the region.

"As some of these institutes are located in remote areas, far from the mainland, not many teachers are willing to shift base there. The matter is being taken up with the state governments," Singh said.
He, however, expressed his satisfaction with their performance at the national and international level.

"Their performance is quite satisfactory but the institutes have to keep improving through research and innovation..." he said.
Praising IIT-Guwahati for its achievements, he said its director has been given full freedom to recruit faculty.
The Centre has taken an initiative to hire best professors from different fields of work. Under the Swayam Prabha scheme, curriculum-based lectures will also be aired on 32 Direct-to-Home (DTH) channels, he added.