DEVELOP EDUCATIONAL HUBS IN ODISHA A LA AP
Through the Idco, the district Collectors of six
different districts have been asked to identify 200 acres of land for the
proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIM) in Odisha.
Though politically the State
Government may have played a clever game to woo different regions, it appears
that actually it is not serving the interest of inclusive growth of the State.
First of all, the State Government
completely forgot other districts like Balangir, Kalahandi, Angul, Dhenkanal
and Baleswar where similar demands for an IIM have been made. Secondly, the
present recommendations give an edge to State Capital region comprising
Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. If I were a part of the Central selection committee, I
would also select Bhubaneswar/Cuttack among the other proposed sites because of
the fact that the sites located around the State capital region has the
advantages of the entire existing infrastructure along with an international
airport in a close distance.
Despite airport being given as a
criterion, many of the State Governments are recommending sites for various
national institutions based on their best interest. There are cases where sites
located in 200 km radius from a regular airport have been considered to
establish a national institution like the IIM.
For example, the Himachal Pradesh
Government has proposed a site for the new IIM, which is not close to any of
the regular airports. If Andhra Pradesh Government gave an option of either Visakhaptnam
or Tirupati for the proposed new Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), the
Central Government would most likely pick up Visakhaptanam due to better
connectivity. On the contrary, Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has limited his
proposal to Tirupati for the IIT, Visakhaptanam for the IIM, Vijayawada for the
AIIMS, Kurnool for the IIIT, Vizianagaran for the Tribal University, Anantapur
for the Central University, West Godavari for the NIT and East Godavari for the
Petroleum University to bring a decentralized development of higher education
in that State.
If the Odisha Government was serious
about decentralization of higher education, it would not ask for sites around
the State capital region including Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and limit the
proposed sites to Sambalpur, Brahmapur, Rourkela and Jeypore, etc for the IIM.
Definitely, for the initial interest
of the IIM as a premier quality institution, Bhubaneswar is an ideal place for
its institutional development. At the same time, an international airport also
is not found in any other part. But the reality is practical success of an
airport needs largely development of service sector including establishment of
educational and health institutions. New IIM itself could help build new
airport and trigger infrastructure development in another location or
hinterland of the State.
Like a few other States, if 200 km
distance from any existing regular airport is enforced by Odisha for
establishing the new IIM, many backward parts could be brought into developmental
map. For instance, locations in Bhawanipatna, Jeypore and Rourkela may use
regular airports in Raipur, Visakhapatnam, and Ranchi respectively.
The Odisha Government’s main priority
should be to create few badly needed mega cities or urban clusters geographically
distributed in Odisha for long term competitiveness of the State in the
national level instead of just meeting the short-term institutional growth like
having an IIM itself.
Naidu has proposed three mega cities
in Andhra Pradesh, one in north (Visakhaptnam), second in south (Tirupati) and
third in the centre (Vijajawada-Guntur), and distributed all the institutes of
national importance accordingly. Tomorrow Andhra Pradesh will have three cities
to compete in the national level whereas Odisha will continue to struggle with
just one.
I suggest the Odisha Government
should follow Andhra Pradesh’s model of creating three mega regions for future.
One could be for the coast within 200
km radius of Bhubaneswar airport including Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Puri,
Nayagarh, Paradip, Jajpur, Berhampur, Baleswar, Dhenkanal, Keonjhar etc.
Second mega region could be for the
north part of the State within 200 km radius of Jharsuguda airport including
Rourkela, Sundergarh, Sambalpur, Brajaraj Nagar, Barbil, Angul, Bargarh,
Sonepur, Boudh, etc.
And the third mega region could be
for south part, especially for the backward KBK-Kandhamal-Gajapati region
comprising Rayagada, Jeypore, Koraput, Paralakhemundi, Nabarangpur, Sunabeda,
Bhawanipatna, Umarkote, Khariar, Malkangiri, Nuapada, Titilagarh, Kantabanji,
Balangir and Phulbani, etc.
Therefore it is highly needed that
the State Government decentralise educational development in Odisha, especially
giving priority to mega clusters that lack educational and infrastructure development
in airport instead of just meeting institutional need of the proposed IIM.
(The writer, who hails from Odisha, works as
Associate Professor at the Department of Chemistry in theAmerican University of
Beirut, Lebanon)
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