No objection by guv, RGUHS shifting will begin today: DKS

Energy Minister D K Shivakumar on Saturday said the process of moving the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Science campus from Bengaluru to Ramanagaram would begin on Sunday. The entire process would be completed by June-end. Addressing a press conference in Bengaluru, the minister, who is in charge of Ramanagaram district, said the governor has not directed the government not to shift the campus.

The government has organised a function at Ramanagaram at 11 am on Sunday to mark the shifting. Elected representatives of the district have been invited for the programme. Various sections of the university would be moved to the new campus in a phased manner to avoid inconvenience to students, he added.

He said some people are misleading the court as well as the media by leaking internal communication between the governor and the university. “I and Medical Education Minister SharanParaksh Patil had met the governor on Friday. We shared details about the reasons for shifting the university. He was convinced that there are no legal hurdles. He has advised us to move the campus without creating inconvenience to students,” he said.

The minister said a section of the farmers who had donated land for the campus had moved the Supreme Court against the government’s decision, but the court delivered the verdict in favour of the government. There are compensation issues over land of 25 acres and the KIADB has promised farmers to sanction the compensation as per the current market value, he said. The government had assigned the shifting process to PWD. The new campus with hospital facility would cost around Rs 1,000 crore, he said.