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Chasing a chimera?

A proposed University over 10,000 acres of land! The very concept tends to throw up questions on whether such a vast patch is really necessary for a university. The unanimous response from various quarters was an absolute 'no' . Perhaps nowhere in the world has any university been set up over such an expanse. Where the state goverment is headed in league with Vedant Foundation, nobody knows.

D N Singh
A proposed University over 10,000 acres of land! The very concept tends to throw up questions on whether such a vast patch is really necessary for a university. The unanimous response from various quarters was an absolute 'no' . Perhaps nowhere in the world has any university been set up over such an expanse. Where the state goverment is headed in league with Vedant Foundation, nobody knows. But Orissa's Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and his coterie of bureaucrats not only feel so but have pandered to the whims of industrialist Anil Agarwal of Vedant Alumina through a MOU signed already for the proposed university. Anil Agarwal the Sterlite chief has proposed to set up a world class university along the Puri-Konark Marine Drive. The area which has been one of the major tourist rendezvous. The road Marine Drive meanders through the virgin forest, almost grazing the sea shore, offering a spectacular collage of nature for anyone who looks for it. On the other side of the road is the long expanses of casuarina and other marine friendly forests and the space between the shore and the road houses the century old Balukhand Sanctuary, home to various wildlife species. The proposed university over an area of 10,000 acres will leave no trace of the green cover right from Konark to Puri. If that is going to be a reality, it is bound to eliminate the biodiversity of the sanctuary on the other side of the road. Obviously the existing sanctuary will be reduced to ruins of a glorious heritage. That apart, the university area is likely to reverberate through the villages where many have raised their eyebrows about the real intentions behind such a gradiose yet outlandish concept. And the trouble has already begun. While intellectuals look up in askance, a popular movement is building up in the areas against the project. Obviously the administration is under too much of pressure to try and pacify the agitators. The question is of paramount importance. Apart from the eco-diversity the project is likely to raze more than 18 mouzas which harbour a population of more than 50,000. As per the available information they are supposed to get only the cost of the land. So there might be another spell of nightmare for those to be displaced and headache for the government of Kalinganar magnitude. This densely populated verdant expanse is interspersed with fertile and pasture lands and a beautiful confluence of two rivers merging with the Bay of Bengal. Nearly a hundred small and big ponds which have been the main sources of water for cultivation would vanish. But for the goverment it has been declared as a Special Economic Zone(SEZ), a chimera Patnaik would never give up chasing. It would be too populist, albeit tempting, to think of a university here of international standards, and that too in a land where the very structure of primary education is yet to have a strong footing. A state where 50 per cent children do not reach the threshold of a school. The arguments of the people is that no university in the world has acquired more than 500 acres for its campus, not even the top universities like Oxford and Cambridge!