Javadekar speaks to U'khand CM over NIT row

Union minister Prakash Javadekar spoke to Uttarakhand Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat on Thursday following a protest by students of National Institute of Technology (NIT) in the state demanding safer campus.

Over 900 students of the institute in Pauri Garhwal's Srinagar have left en masse for their homes to press for their demand that the institute be shifted from its present "unsafe" location along the National Highway 58 to a permanent campus, officials said.

"Following an accident on campus, students have been demanding a safer campus. I spoke to the chief minister. Though an alternative site for the permanent campus has already been identified we are working on a strategy for making the current campus safer and the plan will be ready in the coming fortnight," Javadekar, the Human Resource Development minister, told reporters here.

The institute's temporary campus in Uttarakhand comprises two clusters. The hostels and classes are located on the government polytechnic campus while the administrative buildings and laboratories are located at the government Industrial Training Institute (ITI) located 400 metres away.

Students have been agitating since October 4 demanding the institute be shiftedfrom its present location along the NH 58 in the town which, according to them, was "unsafe".

Three B.Tech students had met with accidents while commuting from one cluster of the institute's temporary campus to another along the highway.

Two girl students of the institute were also badly injured after being hit by a vehicle earlier this month, sparking an agitation.