Govt panel to review land allocation for varsities

 With state governments struggling to allot land for centrally-funded higher educational institutions due to burgeoning population and scarcity of available land, the HRD ministry has set up a six-member committee to evolve new norms and ease the existing ones.

The panel, headed by Higher Education Secretary Satyanarayan Mohanty, will assess the situation and recommend “ideal and optimum requirement” of land for establishing different categories of higher educational institutions.

It has also been tasked to recommend norms for determining land requirement in different locations based on topography, class of city or town. The panel, which has been asked to submit its report with recommendations within two months from its first meeting, will study the land utilisation by the existing centrally-funded higher educational institutions.

It will also study how other countries approached land scarcity while setting up new institutions.

“There is an urgent need to revise the land requirement for different kinds of higher educational institutions which is more realistic and accommodative under the present circumstances,” an HRD ministry official said.

Existing norms stipulate that Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) should be established in a 100-acre area, while Indian Institute of Management (IIM) and Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER) should come up in a 200-acre area.
DH News Service