Centre continues to play politics in setting up of IIT in Orissa.

Union Human Resource Minister Arjun Singh is known for his clumsy way of doing things. He seems to have some evil designs for Orissa so far as establishment of a new IIT is concerned.Three new IITs are opening next month in Bihar, Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu. The three existing IITs in Guwahati, Madras and Delhi have been made 'mentor institutions' for the new institutes in Patna, Medak and Rajasthan. But Singh's Ministry appears to have coolly ignored the IIT for Orissa.In all fairness, the IIT Kharagpur should have been declared as the 'mentor institution' for the new institution for Orissa. Singh, however, seems to be playing a game of setting people of Orissa against each other.

While the Centre announced place-specific IITs in cases of Bihar and Tamil Nadu, Singh's Ministry let politics play a big role in cases of Rajasthan and Orissa. But Chief Minister of Rajasthan Vasundhara Raje Scindia acted smarter in frustrating Singh's game plan, while her Orissa counterpart Naveen Patnaik failed to understand the designs.In Orissa, there is now a big fight in at least four places, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Berhampur and Koraput, for location of the IIT, which Singh exactly wanted, sources said. A top technocrat pointed this out to Patnaik. The Orissa Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation (IDCO) was asked to identify the land for establishment of the proposed IIT. The IDCO has identified three spots for the purpose.Interestingly, last week only, the MHRD sent a letter to identify land measuring 600 acres for the proposed IIT in the vicinity of Bhubaneswar, which will be directly accessible to the airport, railway and National Highway. Closest to Bhubaneswar, a temple land near Jatni is available, which is only 25 km from the Capital city. This is approachable by railway and NH. But the snag is that only 400 acres of Government land is available, which may not be acceptable for IIT.
The second place is near Banki-Cuttack road, which is around 65 km from Bhubaneswar. There is a patch of more than 2,000 acres of Government land there. However, the place is not directly connected with NH, though it lies by the side of a State Highway.The third place is in Tangi of the Bhusandpur area near the Chilika lake. More than 4,000 acres of land is available in the low-lying areas of the lake. It will be more than 70 km from Bhubaneswar. The place is enchantingly picturesque. The NH-5 is passing close the place.
Out of these three places, one will be chosen. Experts are visiting the places, and it will take much time to reach a final decision. However, nothing prevents the MHRD to declare IIT Kharagpur as the 'mentor institution' of IIT Orissa and start the classes from this education year. IIT Kharagpur needs three to four acres of land as it is having an extension centre in Bhubaneswar. Only 70,000 square feet of an area is needed to begin the classes.