New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi is understood to have taken a grim view of the fact that all six IITs and seven IIMs, announced during the BJP regime, are still operating from temporary campuses and has asked the Union human resources development ministry to speed up construction of permanent buildings for these institutes.
It is understood that after the PMO’s intervention, HRD minister Prakash Javadekar has directed senior officials of his ministry to resolve the pending issues soon. Officials have been told that construction work of these projects, six IITs and seven IIMs, stuck at various stages should be given utmost priority and be completed on a mission mode.
For the past one to two years, after these institutes were established, all of them have been operating their academic sessions from temporary structures.
Sources stated that the government is also contemplating to impose financial penalty on institutes if they do not complete work on their campus buildings within stipulated time. It is understood that a majority of these higher education institutes are likely to be given a time period of three years to finish all infrastructure work on the campuses after which a financial penalty may be imposed on them.
Sources stated that the HRD minister has taken a serious view of the situation and has asked the officials to make a policy to aid timely completion of these buildings.
The move to set a deadline for completion of these institutes is expected to improve the pace of infrastructure creation in the higher education sector, the focus area earmarked by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Sources stated that unless these Central educational institutes begin operations from permanent campuses, the government would not be able to provide them with world-class infrastructure and educational facilities, hampering the growth of students in higher education.
This newspaper had in September 2014 reported that over two-thirds of Central universities, IITs, IIMs and other Central institutes established during the UPA regime were functioning from rented buildings.
