After 20 years, the national defence university remains only on paper

Two decades after its conception and more than six years since foundation stone was laid, the Indian National Defence University remains very much only on paper, while the Narendra Modi government announces a new Police University on a similar line.

While the project cost went up by 10 times since 2013 after the foundation stone was laid by the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the draft Indian Defence University legislation remained with the Cabinet Secretariat without any progress from December 2017 till at least August 2019.

The approval of the law is essential for establishing the university as the detailed project report can be finalised after the law is passed, the Comptroller and Auditor General says in its latest report tabled in the Parliament, quoting the Defence Ministry official.

The ambitious university to educate and adequately prepare the national security leaders was proposed in the 1999 Kargil Review Committee. The Union Cabinet gave its approval in May 2010 for the project at a cost of Rs 295 crore with an additional Rs 100 crore for the land.

The land was acquired at Binola in Haryana in 2012. Singh laid the foundation stone a year later after which the area was fenced and perimeter roads were constructed. But the progress ended there as multiple roads blocks came up subsequently.

On the advice of then National Security Advisor Shivshankar Menon and other officials, the consultant (Education Consultants of India Limited) changed the project's scope, making it a Rs 1,908 crore campus to house 2215 students instead of 230 as originally planned.

In the Narendra Modi regime, the Defence Ministry in February 2015 revised the Approved Cabinet note of May 2010 due to a steep rise in cost and change in its scope. The same consultant revised the project cost to Rs 4,007 crore in December 2017 but since then there has not been any progress, said the CAG report.

Going by the original plan, the NDU was to be headed by a three-star officer with the Defence Minister as Chancellor and President as the Visitor. While 66% students were to be from the armed forces, the remaining were to be from the police and civilians.

Even with the university nowhere on the horizon, Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman in her budget speech announced establishing a national police university.

Two days later, Minister of State for Home Affairs G Kishan Reddy said that the Centre had planned to set up the National Police University by making the existing Raksha Shakti University in Ahmedabad a central university and conferring it the status of Institute of National Importance. A legislation may also be in the offing.