Dharamshala: Nearly 280 hectares of land at Jagrangal near Dharamshala and over 80 Kanals of land at Dehra still has to be transferred for establishing the Kangra Central University. Deputy commissioner Rakesh Prajapati, after a review meeting stated that officials had been asked to speed up the land transfer for both the North and South Campus. After transfer, the land in question would need to be cleared by ministry of forest and environment (MoEF).
The deputy commissioner informed that for the North Campus at Jadarangal about 25 hectare land had already been transferred and about 35 hectares had been transferred for setting up the South Campus in Dehra.
Prajapati said,” the state government is serious about starting the construction of the university very soon, for which special steps are being taken to fulfil all the formalities related to land transfer.”
It was more than a decade ago, in October 2007, that the central government had allotted a central university of Himachal Pradesh, which the then Congress government had decided to set up in Dharamshala. An IIT institute was also allotted at the same time. It was decided to set up the IIT at Mandi and today IIT Mandi is one of the most prestigious institutes among the newer IITs set up in the country, but the Kangra central university has been a bone of contention about setting it up at Dharamshala or Dehra.
Caught up in politics the university is still to be set up and till date even the full land required for the institute that is to be funded by the central government has not been transferred for the purpose.
Arvind Sharma is an award winning bi-lingual journalist with more than 20 years of experience.
He has worked with Divya Himachal, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhasker, Vir Partap, Ajit and PTI.
In 2010, he was conferred the Himachal Kesri journalism award. He reports on the Tibetan Government in Exile, politics, sports, tourism and other topics. He lives in Dharamshala.
