The Union human resources development ministry has rejected outright the demand of the outstation students studying at Srinagar’s National Institute of Technology that the institute be shifted out of Kashmir. It has also turned down their plea that, alternatively, a campus extension be set up somewhere outside the Valley or the migration rules relaxed to enable students to move out and get enrolled at convenient NITs elsewhere.
However, the ministry and Jammu and Kashmir government have accepted the protesting students’ demand for improved infrastructure on the campus, including providing them with better amenities, such as good washrooms, uninterrupted power supply and communication facilities. “Though security is not an issue as such, we’re committed to provide it to them,” said the J&K education minister Syed Naeem Akhtar.
