Gross injustice to Orissa:Announced National Inst. of Sc. in Bhubaneswar renamed & shifted

We make the following comparison based on the following documents (Thanks to Manoj and Digambara for the pointers.):

http://www.education.nic.in/Annualreport2004-05/Uhe.pdf

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/hrd-planning-commission.pdf

http://www.education.nic.in/Annualreport2004-05/Techedu.pdf

http://mospi.nic.in/rti_manual11_2005.pdf


Technical education at the central level comprises the

AICTE,

7 IITs 255.6 crores/yr avg of 36.51 crores/yr
(Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Guwahati, and Roorkee),

6 IIMs 60 crores/yr avg of 10 crores/yr (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Calcutta, Lucknow, Indore, Kozhikode),

IISc Bangalore, 30 crores/yr

ISM Dhanbad, 6 crores/yr

SPA Delhi, 6.8 crores/yr

IIITM Gwalior, 16 crores/yr

IIIT Allahbad,

IIITDM Jabalpur (under construction),

18 NITs 140crores/yr total avg of 7.77 crores/yr (Allahbad, Bhopal, Calicut, Durgapur, Hamirpur, Jaipur, Jalandhar, Jamshedpur, Kurukhetra, Nagpur, Patna, Rourkela, Silchar, Srinagar, Surat, Surathkal, Trichi, Warangal),

NIFFT Ranchi, 8.8 crores/yr

NITIE Mumbai, 8 crores/yr

SLIET Punjab, 10 crore/yr

NERIST Itanagar, 10 crore/yr

4 NITTTRs (Bhopal, Calcutta, Chandigarh, Chennai), and

4 BOATs. 3 crores/yr total; 0.75 crore/yr/each BOAT

====================================

16 central universities = 692.3 crores = 43.3 crores/univ

============================================

WB vs Orissa

WB = IITKGP + IIM Cal + Shanti Niketan + ISI Cal + NIT Durgapur

= 36.51 crores + 10 crores + 43.3 crores appx + 10 crores appx + 7.7 crores = 98.51 crores

Orissa = NIT Rourkela = 7.7 crores
============================================

We realize that the above data is outdated and incomplete. For example, according to a source with close knowledge of NIT RKL and IIT KGP budget, the current funding of NIT Rourkela is about Rs 15 crore annually on non plan (revenue expenditure) and 10 crore on plan (construction, special projects), and the current funding of IIT Kharagpur is some thing like Rs 80 crore under nonplan and Rs 30 crore under plan grant.

Similarly, according to http://mospi.nic.in/rti_manual11_2005.pdf the current funding (in 2005) of ISI is 40 crores. However, ISI is not funded by the HRD ministry. We have taken it into our calculation as it is an institute of national importance.

We have requested for and are waiting for the exact data for all the HRD institutes.

Nevertheless, the above analysis gives us a rough idea of the magnitude of the disparity and imbalance in the HRD ministry's funding with respect to its technical and higher education institutions.

This email, i sent to my friends

Dear Friends
We are now quite aware of on going issues of NIS / IISER. We decided to fight, till we achieve it, even there are plans to fight for years, (kindly refer to earlier posting by Prof. Baral, in this website http://www.iiser.blogspot.com/).

I was just reading a report [1] on “upgrading the existing institutes” to IITs (seven more). It is just important to note that, West Bengal, AP and UP will have two IITs each, in addition to, the esteemed institutes already belong to these states.

Whether, the proposal will come true for AP and UP or not, WB will definitely make it due to their political support to UPA govt.

In addition, WB has proposals for an IIFT (Indian Institute of Foreign trade) which will be approved soon.

In total, WB would have about twenty (20) centrally funded institutes [1, 2, 3, 4, 5], let’s count
(1) IITs Jadavpur, new IIT
(2) Bengal Engineering Colleg, new IIT
(3) One existing, IIT KGP, Hijacked from Orissa
(4) One IISER, Hijacked from Orissa
(5) One IIFT, proposed. in addition to
(6) One existing IIM, Kolkata
(7) IIIT, Kolkata (Not centrally funded)
(8) ISI Kolkata
(9) Bose Institute Kolkata
(10) Saha Institutes of Nuclear Physics
(11) S.N. Bose National Centre for Basic Sciences, Kolkata
(12) Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata
(13) Visva Bharati, Santiniketan, Central University
(14) Central Glass and Ceramic Research Institute, Jadarpur, Calcutta
(15) Central Mechanical Engineering Research Institute, Durgapur
(16) Central Drug Research Laboratory, Calcutta
(17) Indian Institute for Biochemistry and Experimental Medicines, Calcutta
(18) Indian Paint Research Association, Calcutta
(19) All India Institute of hygiene and public Health, Calcutta
(20) Royal Botanical Gardens, Botanical Survey of India, Shivpur, Howrah

How many of these national institutes, we have in Orissa? practically NONE !!!!

This is only an example of higher education and institutions; there are many other instances, where our state is behind other states. Who is responsible for this? People of West Bengal? Definitely NOT.

The people of Orissa who hold responsible for this; this due to our lack of interests, unity and patriotic feelings for the sake of our motherland, Orissa. Consequently, Orissa is known to be one of the poorest states in our country. It hurts me to note that, even a security guard in Bangalore feels that Orissa is poor. We are happy with the existing conditions, we are happy to go to other cities and work there, get some money if possible settle there, Bangalore is cool !!!

As a young man, if I ask this question, who is responsible for the present status of our state? Answer is, the political leaders and every citizen, a few generations senior to us. Our generation is not responsible.

My dear colleagues and friends please contribute to the state in every possible way and join the movements to make Orissa, one of the glorious states and let us erase all the “poor” adjectives, attached to it. Please put forth your ideas to make long-term strategies.

We are answerable to our future generation. At the end of the year, we have to work hard!

Best regards
Manoj Kumar Pradhan, PhD
Zurich
Switzerland

References
http://www.business-standard.com/strategist/storypage.php?chklogin=N&autono=209736&lselect=8&leftnm=lmnu7&leftindx=7
http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/utype.php?st=Central%20University
http://www.ugc.ac.in/inside/utype.php?st=Institute%20of%20National%20Importance
http://dst.gov.in/autonomous/autonomous_index.htm
http://www.webindia123.com/career/research/reslab.html

Thanks to sibasis Bhai (Dr. Sibasis Acharya, Clausthal, Germany, for the data and suggestions)

I fully agree with your points mentioning about the Correcting Center's inequity in HRD spending for orissa. You must need to keep our non-violence approach of raising your voice wherever and whenever it is required and justified for.

At the same time I will extend your subject to one step ahead by making sure that in addition to correcting the center we also need to correct or improve our State Govt's HRD spending in terms of setting up resources and building infrastructure equally to every districts of Orissa. I think the first priority should go to the most backward districts of our state like Koraput, Bolangir , Gajpati etc. etc. Otherwise our mission for a DEVELOPED orissa will be remained half-achieved from oneside.

Prashant Sahoo
New Jersey, USA.

www. Organizer.org
By Deepak Kumar Rath

Since the formation of the UPA government, Orissa has always been facing bottlenecks on every front while raising any demand for the development of the state from the Congress-led government at the Centre. Instead of starting any new project for the state, the Centre appears to be intentionally dumping the already declared projects by the NDA rule one after another.
First, the UPA government decided to stop the vast project of starting a branch of All India Institute of Medical Sciences in the state. Although the state government had provided land for the medical institute, the Central health minister maintained a studied silence over the further development of the project. It is to be noted that the state has a very poor health care system and has only three old medical colleges, which are totally insufficient to cater to the large number of patients. If any private institute plans to open any medical college and hospital in the state, the Centre appears to be reluctant in giving permission despite state government’s positive attitude. Recently, Dr Prasanna Patsani, MP, Bhubaneswar, raised the issue in Parliament that if the UPA government does not want to work on the dream project of the previous NDA government for starting AIIMS’ branch in Bhubaneswar, it should at least grant permission to the private institutes to start medical colleges in the state.

The state’s sorry-state-of-affair does not end here. During the NDA regime, the National Institute of Science (NIS) was announced to be set up in Bhubaneswar. On April 9, 2003, the UGC had taken a decision to establish four centres for studies in integrated sciences at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Pune. Some work had started in this regard. But after the change of government at the Centre, nothing has been done in this matter and the UPA government is playing with the sentiments of the people of the state. The Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, in its meeting held on March 4, 2005, recommended creation of two new institutes devoted to science education and research at Pune and Kolkata. The UPA government taking some flimsy pleas recommended setting-up of two institutes at Pune and Kolkata. This was an injustice towards Orissa to shift the NIS from Bhubaneswar to any other state. Therefore, a large number of demonstrations by different political outfits, students and social organisations were carried out in the state capital. During the last monsoon session of Parliament, Member of the Rajya Sabha from Orissa, Shri Rudra Narayan Pani raised the issue in Parliament. In the current winter session, all the state MPs of both from the BJP and BJD raised the issue in the Lok Sabha. Recently, all the MPs from Orissa and all the organisitations fighting for the cause of Orissa organised an agitation in front of Parliament under the leadership of former HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi. Orissa BJP President Shri Jual Oram, BJP Yuva Morcha National President Shri Dharmendra Pradhan, Rajya Sabha Member Shri Rudra Narayan Pani, student leader Shri Jatin Mahanty and others participated in the agitation and vowed to restart the NIS in Bhubaneswar.

.....The alleged shifting of the NIS, the slow progress of work in railway projects as well as the regional centre of AIIMS, refusal to provide special financial package to the state were points made against the central government by several speakers.

BJD president Mr Naveen Patnaik who spoke in Oriya before switching over to Hindi, iterated his commitment to fulfil the dream of Biju Patnaik. He claimed that his government was a pro-poor government and listed out his achievements in the field of rural development, women enlightenment, programmes for farmers and attracting investment to the state.
Significantly, Mr Patnaik was the only speaker who did not utter a single word against the UPA government nor did he refer to the charges being hurled by the Opposition. .......

Dear Mr. Panda:

It was very nice meeting you and talking with you yesterday. We really appreciate your
taking the time with us to discuss various issues.

As we discussed, our bigger goal (beyond NIS) is to fight for equitable spending
by the HRD ministry with respect to Orissa. Our rough calculation
shows that currently the HRD ministry spends about 20 times in West Bengal
as compared to Orissa, and overall Orissa is probably among the
bottom 2-3 states.

This inequity has thrust Orissa to backwardness and has also partially resulted in many
talented Oriyas leaving Orissa. Many oriyas who move to study in another state
often stay in that state. Thus it is important that it is corrected.
Hence we plan to have a sustained campaign to correct it.

As a starting point of our campaign to correct the above inequity
we need the following data. We would appreciate it very much if you could
obtain them through your sources.

best regards and thanks again for your time

Chitta Baral
Professor, Arizona State University
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cbaral

1. The statewise overall spending by the HRD ministry's technical and
higher education divisions.
(a) For 2005-2006
(b) For 2004-2005
(c) Cumulatively since 1950

2. The statewise spending by the HRD ministry's technical and

NIS will surely be set up in Orissa, asserts Naveen

Pioneer News Service / Bhubaneswar

The Biju Janata Dal (BJD) president and Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Monday urged party workers to spread the good word about the Government's achievements among the people who live in the cities and also the remote parts of Orissa. Mr Patnaik was speaking at the State party office here on the occasion of the BJD's ninth foundation day.

He underlined his Government's efforts to make Orissa the number one State in the country. "The National Institute of Sciences ( NIS) will certainly be set up in the State and the party is putting all its efforts in this direction,'' asserted Mr Patnaik.

He further said that the Government has taken every possible step for the uplift of the State's women by introducing Mission Shakti. Similar efforts are being made to create job opportunities through an employment initiative, he added. Emphasising his Government's role in bringing prosperity to the farmers and the landless people, he said the creation of Pani Panchayat was a step in this direction. The Government, he continued, was trying to bring a smile on the face of each man and woman of the State.

The Chief Minister also reiterated his Government's commitment to provide basic amenities including good roads, drinking water and the electricity to the people. For the uplift of tribals, the Government has also initiated many projects, he said.

Seeking the support of the people to make the State number one, Mr Patnaik said the pace of industrialisation had been moving swiftly. Similarly, the State had witnessed growth in the IT sector and the Infosys chairman's visit was a move in this direction.

The party's secretary general Dr Damodor Rout came down heavily on the Opposition, stating that they would not be successful in bringing disrepute to the Naveen Patnaik Government.

In a scathing attack on the Opposition, Mr Pyari Mohan Mohapatra, Rajya Sabha MP, said that the party, unlike the Opposition, was not controlled from Delhi and believed in democracy.

It did not have to wait for any direction from Delhi to arrive at a decision. It would take some time to make the party a real cadre-based organisation, he observed, adding that the BJD would be in power for the next 20 to 25 years and serve the people.

Criticising the step-motherly attitude of the Centre towards Orissa, he said the Congress Government, whenever in power, had never helped the State Government realise its goals. Even Prime Minister Nehru had opposed late Biju Patnaik's move to set up Paradip port, he pointed out. "When the State Government is facing debt burden, the Centre is busy neglecting the genuine demands of the State,' he rued.

Mr Mohapatra suggested that the party should create a cell in the industrial areas. The cell should try to help the people in getting employment and look after their rehabilitation. "The State cannot develop through the Government employees; hence, the party workers should work to ensure the State's progress," he said, adding that the party should make sincere efforts to constitute committees from the ward level to the State level.

Strongly criticising the Opposition, vice-president of the party and Finance Minister Prafulla Ghadai said that earlier when Posco decided to shift its base from Kolkata to Orissa, the Left parties had made all out efforts to stall the project by creating misgivings about it. Orissa's Opposition parties have lent their support to the Left parties, forgetting the interest of the State, he remarked.

On the mining policy, he said the party would only opt for value addition. He further said not a single mining lease has been given to any party. However, during the Congress regime 634 mining leases were given and the mine owners exported ore to the tune of 25 million tonnes last year
Works Minister AU Singh Deo, Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Debasis Nayak, Bjiu Yuva Janata president Ratha Das, Women and Child Welfare Minister Pramila Mallick, Bhubaneswar Mayor Mihir Mohanty, MP Prasanna Patsani and Bhubaneswar district unitpresident Prakash Bastia also spoke on the occasion.

BJD heat over NIS

Statesman News Service
BALASORE, Dec. 25. —

The MLA of Bhograi and district BJD president Mr Ananta Das, has threatened that his party would not hesitate to stall the Haldia-Paradip gas and crude pipeline project, if the NIS (National Institute of Sciences), which was scheduled to come up in Bhubaneswar does not materialise.

Mr Das alleged that the UPA government was adopting a step-motherly attitude towards the state.

...

Naveen holds investment carrot for non-residents

Pioneer News Service / Bhubaneswar

Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Sunday called upon Non-Resident Oriyas(NRO) to invest in the Orissa for contributing to its overall development. He also urged the NROs to take advantage of the industrial boom in the State.

...

The Spokesperson of the NROs Dhirendra Kar said the respective Governments have neglected Orissa over the years and it is high time for all Oriyas to be united on the issue of shifting of the National Institute of Sciences from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata. He further added the Forum has already taken up the issue at the highest level and have involved the MPs over the issue.

...

An Oriya alumni from IISc plans to and has been given permission to present a "Samrak Patra" on NIS to the President when he visits Orissa next week. Several other IISc alumni, including the current president of the Oriya Sansad of IISc, plan to join in this.

Thanks to Prasanna Mohanty for sending in this news.

Dear all:

I met some of the people in Bhubaneswar spearheading the protest on NIS.
Based on our discussions, and the premise that we may have to
continue our struggle for a year or 2, following is part of our action plan.

1. In Orissa get the movement beyond Bhubaneswar with respect to
every district of Orissa. The next one is scheduled to be in Baripada and
Agamee Orissa has plans for other districts. The goal would be to have at least
1-2 protest events every month.

2. We would like protest events in all state capitals of Orissa. The idea
is that a group of Oriyas will give a memorandum to the Governor of that state
(who is the representative of the central govt in that state) and copies to the local
media and perhaps make a donation to a local organization.

3. We would like similar protest events in all cities in the world which has an Indian
consulate. The idea is that a group of Oriyas will give a memorandum to the consul general

Agamee Odisha has the plan for the things inside Orissa. For 2 and 3 above, if someone
is willing to take a leadership role, please post your willingness in
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nis_iiser/messages
and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agamiorissa/messages

Please join one of those groups so that mass
emailings are avoided.

Please read http://iiser.blogspot.com and watch out the newsgroups,
such as myodisa, ornet, calnet etc.

More on the plans in future messages.

best regards
Chitta
(ps -- Please forward this message to concerned Oriyas.)

Depriving Orissa

The Pioneer Edit Desk

Whenever the Congress has come to power at the Centre, State Governments over which the party has no control have felt deprived of their legitimate share of the development cake. This feeling is the strongest in eastern India. For instance, successive Governments in Bhubaneswar have often accused New Delhi of adopting a "step motherly attitude towards backward Orissa".

That the allegation is not entirely unfounded is borne out by the fact that both the Congress's adversaries as well as a large number of apolitical intellectuals of the State have levelled it for decades. This feeling dates back to the early-1960s, when the Congress was in power both at the Centre, with Jawaharlal Nehru as Prime Minister, as well as in Orissa, with Biju Patnaik as Chief Minister. Nehru had then refused to accept Patnaik's proposal to develop Paradip as a port and link it with Orissa's iron ore-rich hinterland so that the mineral could be exported.

Despite being a Congress heavyweight, Patnaik failed in his endeavour and virtually revolted against the Centre by going ahead with the project and building an expressway to connect Daitary with Paradip. Ironically, within a few years when Paradip emerged as one of the country's major ports, the Union Government took it over.

There are numerous similar instances of the Congress, when in power at the Centre, paying scant heed for Orissa's interests; indeed, on occasions it has gone out of the way to deprive the State. This is exemplified by the UPA Government's move to deprive Orissa of a quality educational and research institution, the National Institute of Science (NIS), by reversing the NDA Government's decision to locate it at Bhubaneswar. In order to appease the Left and expand the scope of his toxic agenda, Union Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh has decided to shift the institute to Kolkata.

Understandably, the move has angered the State's ruling BJD-BJP alliance as well as Orissa's intelligentsia. Indeed, it is Agamee Odisha, an organisation of educationists, various professionals and social activists, which is in the forefront of the protest. Apart from being a blatant move to punish Orissa for re-electing the NDA, Mr Arjun Singh's contemptible decision is aimed at depriving Orissa from having a centre of excellence that it lacks.

This is vindictiveness at its worst. The UPA Government's stand that the Centre had never taken a formal decision to set up the NIS at Bhubaneswar hardly convinces anybody, least of all people in Orissa. Not only has former Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi confirmed that the Ministry had indeed decided to set up NIS at Bhubaneswar, the proposal is also reflected in last September's publication of the University Grants Commission.

Moreover, the Planning Commission has allocated Rs 100 crore for setting up four such institutes of excellence, including one in Orissa, while the State Government has identified land at Bhubaneswar. When cornered by NDA members in Parliament on Tuesday, the Government assured them that it would look into the issue afresh. But given the wily ways and the toxic mind of Mr Arjun Singh, such promises hold little hope.

Dear esteemed MP Mr. Jual Oram:

We really appreciate yours and the other Orissa MP's efforts in the parliament.
I think all your and our effort will be further strengthened if we obtain the following
data from the central government.

Please request them from the appropriate sources or through parliament questions.

Thanks and best regards
Chitta Baral



1. The statewise overall spending by the HRD ministry's technical and
higher education divisions.
(a) For 2005-2006
(b) For 2004-2005
(c) Cumulatively since 1950

2. The statewise spending by the HRD ministry's technical and

Dear All,

The movement on NIS has come to a stage, where there is a need for introspection of our past activities and formulating future strategies. As planned at the beginning, we had the People’s Convention, then StudentsUnion leaders Convention, then torch light procession of the students, then Citizen’s March to Governor House and finally Dharana (Protest March) in front of Parliament at Delhi.

Other activities in supports of these phases of movements were i) writing letters to and meeting with the MLAs, which could create a kind of situation whereby the MLAs were forced to raise the issue in the assembly resulting in formation of an all party MLA delegation to meet the prime minister. II) Writing to and meeting with MPs individually which could prompt them to come together in support of the issue including raising it in the floor of Parliament. III) Writing letters to and meeting with important academicians/intellectuals of the state to build up solid support base behind the cause. IV) Mobilising the press/media in favour of the movement. These were done by Agamee Odisha by utilizing its full potentials from all respect. We are deeply moved by enthusiastic support from different corners/individuals for the success of the movements.

The other initiatives such as filing of PIL in the High Court, public actionby Kalinga Sena, Neela Chakra, Samajwadi Party, People’s Convention by CPIM have immensely helped the movement to grow strength by strength. We all from Agamee Odisha would like to thank all of them for their such act of strengthening the movement on NIS. There is a remarkable positive message we get from this movement-students wings of both left and right and ruling and opposition could come together in this movement at different stages. There are enough of reasons of satisfaction on the part of our members and supporters on the success of the movement at different stages. But complacencyshould not engulf us. Nor we should think that we have done enough and now we would be getting NIS. Of course the statement of the Govt in the floor of theParliament is to be observed, which would largely influence our further course of action. But our movement is to continue with more vigour, with more participation and giving it a horizontal dimension. We need to spread the movement to different parts of the state. Different programmes are to be organised at district headquarters, at places of strategic importance. Oriyas staying outside of the state in places like Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi, Mumbai need to be motivated to undertake some kind of public action. That’s why we plan to give a call “ODIYA SWAVIMAN JAGARANA YATRA” to gather more and more support in favour of the cause and the movement. Campaigns indifferent forms like public meetings, processions, submitting memorandums, torchlight processions, sending letters to the PM etc will be undertaken in whole ofthe month of January at different places of Orissa and out side. This will help us coming out of a kind of accusation that this is an elitist movement where common men have nothing to do. We call upon the Oriyas to take part in this JAGARANA YATRA more in number with greater spirit. We also request Oriya artists at different places to contribute in their way in protesting against the centre’s discrimination and in support of the movement. Let us take a vow-we will not sit silent till our demand is achieved.

Sudarsan Das

Agamee Odisha

He said that the next high court date for the NIS issue is January 17th.
So, until then the stay order stands. He said the under secretary from Delhi came and spent close to 20 days in Cuttack to vacate the stay order, but was not successful. He has requested the central government to produce various documents in the Cuttack high court. Whether the central government produces any document (beyond the affidavit) or not remains to be seen.

Chitta

SP threatens agitation on NIS issue

Pioneer News Service / Bhubaneswar

The Samajwadi Party on Wednesday threatened to launch a state-wide agitation on the issue of the shifting of National Institute of Science ( NIS) from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Wednesday, party's Orissa unit president, Baishnab Parida said all the party should come forward and unite on this issue. " In order to protect the interest of the State, all the political parties should put a stiff opposition to Centre on this issue," Mr Parida said.

"The State parties should fight for the cause until the Centre allocates fund for the establishment of the institution", he added.
Mr Parida said that the UPA Government's clarification on the issue saying that the previous NDA Government did not allocate any funds for the establishment of the institution is not acceptable.

'Orissa also needs NIS'

Pioneer News Service / Bhubaneswar

Even as Orissa was agitated on the shifting of the National Institute of Sciences (NIS) from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata, the remark of Bardhan on this issue has further stoked the controversy.

Mr Bardhan said there would not be any problem if this institute is set up at Kolkata. "The contentious issue should be solved immediately," he said adding Orissa also need an NIS in Bhubaneswar.

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Dear All,

As some of you might know, yesterday the entire NDA
opposition MP's in the Rajya Sabha walked out after an evasive reply by the government to the NIS matter raised during Zero Hour by myself and Shri Rudra Pani (BJP). After that, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Sushma Swaraj and I spoke to the media, accompanied by all present Orissa MP's of the Rajya Sabha.


However, not only the government, but also the left parties were highly embarrassed by the development preceding the walkout, when all proof of the UGC's commitment for NIS in Orissa was shown by me, alongwith plenty of documentary evidence. It became so unbearable for the treasury benches, that Sitaram Yechury of the CPI(M) actually stood up and associated with my motion that the NIS must come up in Bhubaneswar ! All this is in the records of the proceedings (transcripts to be posted on my website later this week).


The good news (?) is of today, when a highly placed government
personality indicated to me that they were re-thinking the issue and that we might expect an announcement in a few days that the NIS will come up in Bhubaneswar, after all. This was not just a casual comment, but told to me in the presence of the Honourable Vice President of India, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, who is the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha and has strongly supported our cause, openly saying that the injustice to Orissa must be corrected.


This was further reiterated to me later by one of the eminent nominated members of the Rajya Sabha, Shri MS Gill (former Chief Election Commissioner), who indicated that he participated in a
behind-the-scenes discussion with the relevant minister yesterday,
where it was pointed out that the Orissa MP's would simply not allow the matter to die down until justice was done.


It will greatly help the cause if some of you now write to the Hon'ble Vice President, which will strengthen his hands to keep the pressure on the goverment.

With warm regards to all,

-------------------

Also posted at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/myodisa/messages
and
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nis_iiser/
and
other places.

NIS issue rocks both Houses of Parliament

Pioneer News Service/ Bhubaneswar

The leader of the Lok Sabha and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday assured the BJD and BJP members in the House that the Centre would reconsider the question of setting up of the National Institute of Science ( NIS) in Bhubaneswar.




The assurance came after a 15-minute adjournment of the House in the wake of a dharna by the BJD and BJP members, protesting against Mr Mukherjee's earlier statement on the issue, terming it as a distortion of facts, politically motivated and an insult to the people of Orissa. The Minister gave the assurance when the House resumed.



The NIS issue also rocked the Rajya Sabha, with the NDA members of the House staging a walkout in protest against the Government's "unsatisfactory" reply.



Mr Mukherjee in his earlier statement in Lok Sabha, had said that a couple of days ago, some members of the House from Orissa wanted to know whether the Government had decided to change the location of NIS from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata. The facts are that on April 9, 2003, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had taken a decision to establish four Centres of Studies in Integrated Sciences at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Pune.



These centres were proposed to be established under Section 12 (ccc) of the UGC Act. The UGC is empowered to establish institutions for providing common facilities, services and programmes for a group of universities or for the universities in general.



He further stated that the Human Resource Development Ministry, in its letter of June 9, 2003, had raised a query whether the UGC is legally empowered to set up such educational centres. The matter was further examined in detail by the HRD ministry in consultation with the ministry of Law.



The Ministry of Law opined that the UGC could not establish the proposed centres. The UGC was accordingly informed by the ministry on October 28, 2003. As such, the UGC's proposal to establish four centres could not materialise.



Mr Mukherjee said the Government of India has at no time approved the setting up of institutes, as proposed by the UGC. The UGC chairman, thereafter, informed the Government on November 26, 2003 that the UGC would like to facilitate setting up of the institutes as fully autonomous institutions under the universities in which the institutes were to be established. Even this proposal was never agreed to by the Government.



He further said the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister, at its meeting on March 4, 2005, under the chairmanship of Prof CNR Rao, recommended the creation of two new institutes devoted to science education and research and also recommended that they may be located at Pune and Kolkata.



It was after this that the process of setting up of these two institutes at Pune and Kolkata was initiated by the HRD Ministry. As there was no decision by the Government at any time to set up the science institute at Bhubaneswar, the question of shifting the science institute from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata did not arise.



The NIS issue was jointly raised during Zero Hour in Rajya Sabha by Leader of the BJD in the House, Baijayant Panda and BJP MP Rudra Naryan Pani. The NDA members of the House finally staged a walkout as the Union Government failed to give a satisfactory reply.



Strongly criticising the Government's move, Mr Panda said that though he was not opposing a new institute to come up in Kolkata, the Centre should not back away from its earlier promise to a backward state like Orissa. He strongly demanded that the proposed NIS announced for Orissa during the previous NDA Government be retained in Orissa. It is an emotive issue for people of Orissa, he pointed out.



He observed that the UPA Government, possibly under pressure from Left parties, has decided to shift the NIS from Orissa. The Planning Commission had allocated Rs 100 crore for four such new institutes of excellence and, accordingly, the Orissa Government has already identified and made available 75 acres of land. Again, the institute has been reflected in the September publication of the UGC this year. Though Orissa Chief Minister has written three letters in this regard to the Prime Minister, there has been no response from the Centre as yet.



Deputy Leader of the BJP in Rajya Sabha Sushma Swaraj alleged that the UPA Government is torpedoing all the people-oriented development works initiated during the NDA regime. She also accused the Centre of indifference towards the States of UP and Orissa as they are ruled by NDA partners.



Former Union Human Resource Development Minister Murali Manohar Joshi stated that Orissa, being a neighbor of West Bengal, the shifting of NIS would adversely affect the political and economic equations of both the states. BJP members Kripal Peraman and SS Ahluwalia also expressed their concern over the move.



The issue, however, found support from the CPI(M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury, who favoured establishment of the NIS in Bhubaneswar. The Minister of State for the Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri tried to pacify the members, stating that the matter would be looked into. But this did not satisfy the agitated NDA members, who demanded a commitment from the Minster in this regard. Finally they walked out of the House amid slogans by Mr Rudra Pani that the Centre's hegemony would not be tolerated.

NEW DELHI: Opposition NDA on Tuesday staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha to press for setting up of a National Institute of Science at Bhubaneswar, charging the UPA government with ignoring states ruled by non-UPA parties.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, BJ Panda (BJD) accused the Centre of playing regional politics by denying such facility to Orissa though UGC has selected Bhubaneswar besides Chennai, Pune and Allahabad for setting up such institutes.

Supporting him, senior BJP member Sushma Swaraj said government should give an assurance in the House that the institute would be set up in Bhubaneswar.

Otherwise, it would be lead to unrest, she said...

NEW DELHI, DECEMBER 20: The NDA today staged a walkout in the Rajya Sabha to press for setting up of a National Institute of Science at Bhubaneswar. The NDA alleged that the UPA government was deliberately ignoring non-UPA ruled states.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, B J Panda (BJD) accused the Centre of playing regional politics. He said UGC had promised NIS to Orissa. But it was scrapped by UPA government.

He said along with Bhubaneswar, UGC had selected Chennai, Pune and Allahabad for setting up such institutes. Panda told the House while UPA was not implementing the assurance given by the UGC, it had decided to build a NIS in Kolkota.


(Thanks to Mr Kanhu Charan Roul for getting this link)

http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/12/honble-central-minister-pranab.html

Refering to the statement given by Hon'ble Minister Pranab Mukherjee's on NIS/IISER issues seems to be not very adequate considering the volume of information available against it.

Mr. Mukherjee did not mention why proposal was never agreed to by the Government ? Is n’t it a deliberate plan? On what basis IISERs were approved ? Why BBSR / Chennai/ Allahabad were not included in the list of IISER cities and how Kolkata came in between? Is it not clear to common citizen of India that it has a clear political intention? Whether decision on the IISER cities were taken by lottery? It appears that the UPA govt had prepared only the affidavit and the response read by Mr. Mukherjee, opposed 45 page NIS proposal.

Dear All,

These are the email addresses of MPs today I used to
send our email protest (copy of my earlier version).
Few of RAJYA SABHA members' are not working.

With best regards

Digambara

LOK SABHA
omar@sansad.nic.in, akutty@sansad.nic.in, bacharya@sansad.nic.in,prasanna@sansad.nic.in, shivajirao@sansad.nic.in, shivajirao@vsnl.com, adsul@sansad.nic.in, advanilk@sansad.nic.in,
eahmed@sansad.nic.in, shakeel.ahmad@sansad.nic.in, aiyar@satyam.net.in, akumar@sansad.nic.in, ramdas@sansad.nic.in, csatwal@rediffmail.com,
iisatwal@hotmail.com, mef@menf.delhi.nic.in, babbar@sansad.nic.in, bangarappa@sansad.nic.in, pkbhansal@sansad.nic.in, basu@sansad.nic.in,
glbhargava@sansad.nic.in, gs_bisen@rediffmail.com, k.bishnoi@sansad.nic.in, bishnoijs@sansad.nic.in, achakrabort@sansad.nic.in, chandels@sansad.nic.in,
somnath@sansad.nic.in, choubelm@sansad.nic.in, nkchoudhary@sansad.nic.in, chauhansr@sansad.nic.in, deobk@sansad.nic.in, smdev@sansad.nic.in,
rcdom@sansad.nic.in, george@sansad.nic.in, psgadhavi@sansad.nic.in, gandhim@sansad.nic.in, soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in, santoshg@sansad.nic.in,
mhgavit@sansad.nic.in, bhavanapr@sansad.nic.in, geete@sansad.nic.in, rgohain@sansad.nic.in

amgudhe@sansad.nic.in, handique@sansad.nic.in, hasan@sansad.nic.in, puspjain@sansad.nic.in, spjaiswal@sansad.nic.in, jalappa@sansad.nic.in,
jatiya@sansad.nic.in, rjha@sansad.nic.in, nath@sansad.nic.in, bkashyap@sansad.nic.in,
rekaswan@sansad.nic.in, drkathiriya@sansad.nic.in, cbkhaire@sansad.nic.in, vkkh@sansad.nic.in, bc.khanduri@.nic.in, vkhanna@sansad.nic.in,
sckriplani@sansad.nic.in, drckrishnan@sansad.nic.in, fskulaste@sansad.nic.in, skurup@sansad.nic.in, rkkusumaria@sansad.nic.in, lahiris@sansad.nic.in,
sumitram@sansad.nic.in, mahatobs@sansad.nic.in, bmahtab@sansad.nic.in, pmajhi@sansad.nic.in, mandlik@sansad.nic.in, nivedita@sansad.nic.in,
dr_amit@sansad.nic.in, minister@mit.gov.in, meinya@sansad.nic.in, moleypl@sansad.nic.in, smohite@sansad.nic.in, khmuni@sansad.nic.in,
hemlalmurmu@rediffmail.com, vilas@sansad.nic.in, sripadnaik@sansad.nic.in, avnaik@sansad.nic.in, anarendra@sansad.nic.in, ananta@sansad.nic.in,
reddynj@sansad.nic.in, nitish@sansad.nic.in, olasr@sansad.nic.in

jualoram@sansad.nic.in, afgosmani@sansad.nic.in, rcpal@sansad.nic.in, palani@sansad.nic.in, pandeyln@sansad.nic.in, paswansd@sansad.nic.in,
rcpaswan@sansad.nic.in, dahyabhai@sansad.nic.in, dinsha@sansad.nic.in, harinp@sansad.nic.in, lpjpatil@sansad.nic.in, sarang@sansad.nic.in,
patilbv@sansad.nic.in, annasahib@sansad.nic.in, brpatil@sansad.nic.in, spawar@sansad.nic.in, pmohan@sansad.nic.in, sprabhu@sansad.nic.in,
akpradhan@sansad.nic.in, preneet@sansad.nic.in, varkalav@sansad.nic.in, krana@sansad.nic.in, msrn@rb.railnet.gov.in, mvrawale@sansad.nic.in,
bachi@sansad.nic.in, rsrawat@sansad.nic.in, vivekanand@sansad.nic.in, sjaipal@sansad.nic.in, riyanb@sansad.nic.in, sjaipal@sansad.nic.in,
riyanb@sansad.nic.in, kssangwan@sansad.nic.in, nasar@sansad.nic.in, tsaroj@sansad.nic.in, minathi@sansad.nic.in, senthiluro@yahoo.com,
lseth@sansad.nic.in, acsethi@sansad.nic.in, shahabuddin@sansad.nic.in, arshaheen@sansad.nic.in, rrshakya@sansad.nic.in, shandil@sansad.nic.in,
shervani@sansad.nic.in

kapilsibal@hotmail.com, kapil@kapilsibal.com, ksibal@sansad.nic.in, singhrp@sansad.nic.in, cbsingh@sansad.nic.in, sarvraj@sansad.nic.in,
ajits@sansad.nic.in, vishvendra@sansad.nic.in, vijayendra@sansad.nic.in, ramlakhan@sansad.nic.in, lakshman@sansad.nic.in, sangeeta@sansad.nic.in,
bssolanki@sansad.nic.in, S.Sonowal@sansad.nic.in, dcs@sansad.nic.in, rsuman@sansad.nic.in, makswain@sansad.nic.in, jayaben@sansad.nic.in,
thomapc@sansad.nic.in, braja@sansad.nic.in, vajpayee@sansad.nic.in, vzawma@sansad.nic.in, varmarl@sansad.nic.in, dvgopal@sansad.nic.in,
rpverma@sansad.nic.in, rajeshverma@sansad.nic.in, vijayan@sansad.nic.in, vkumar@sansad.nic.in, dsyadav@sansad.nic.in, dpyadav@sansad.nic.in,
yerran@sansad.nic.in, zahedi@sansad.nic.in


RAJYA SABHA
tr.zeliang@sansad.nic.in, nand.kishore@sansad.nic.in, syadav@sansad.nic.in, vyadav@sansad.nic.in, vgeetha@sansad.nic.in, varmarbs@sansad.nic.in,
gkvasan@sasnsad.nic.in, vvikram@sansad.nic.in, avijay@sansad.nic.in, vora@sansad.nic.in, mranwar@sansad.nic.in, tariqa@sansad.nic.in,
eknath@sansad.nic.in, prabha@sansad.nic.in, arasar@sansad.nic.in, dineshpar@satyam.net.in, dtrivedi@sansad.nic.in, dharampal.s@sansad.nic.in,
samadani@sansad.nic.in, gksanghi@sansad.nic.in, girishsanghi@hotmail.com, rskumar@sansad.nic.in, msarkar@sansad.nic.in, jd.seelam@sansad.nic.in,
jdseelam@yahoo.co.in, selvan@sansad.nic.in, anandsharma@sansad.nic.in, satish.kr@sansad.nic.in, dnsharma@sansad.nic.in, ashourie@sansad.nic.in,
rajivs@sansad.nic.in, shuklarajiv@usa.net, shunmuga@sansad.nic.in, shahids@sansad.nic.in, asingh@sansad.nic.in, arjuns@sansad.nic.in,
bnsingh@sansad.nic.in, bhagwati.singh@sansad.nic.in, virb@sansad.nic. in, darasingh@sansad.nic.in, isams@sansad.nic.in

jaswant@sansad.nic.in, karansi@sansad.nic.in, karansingh@karansingh.com, manmohan@sansad.nic.in, mayasingh@sansad.nic.in, rajnath@sansad.nic.in,
chairmanncm@ncm.delhi.nic.in, tarlochan@sansad.nic.in, udaisingh@sansad.nic.in, veersingh@sansad.nic.in, shatrugn@sansad.nic.in, ysinha@sansad.nic.in,
ramamuni@sansad.nic.in, ambika@sansad.nic.in, ambika_aicc@yahoo.com, ssaif@sansad.nic.in, kaurs@sansad.nic.in, lalitsuri@sansad.nic.in,
swaraj@sansad.nic.in, mrahman@sansad.nic.in, krai@sansad.nic.in, bimba@sansad.nic.in,
rajar@sansad.nic.in, avadi@sansad.nic.in, cram@sansad.nic.in, hfm@alpha.nic.in,
jairam@sansad.nic.in, dasari@sansad.nic.in, rammohan@sansad.nic.in

raovh@sansad.nic.in, s.raut@sansad.nic.in, vayalar@sansad.nic.in, hrawat@sansad.nic.in, mayfair@sansad.nic.in, rebia@sansad.nic.in,
rcreddy@sansad.nic.in, reddyts@sansad.nic.in, abani@sansad.nic.in, tkroy@ sansad.nic.in, pachouri@sansad.nic.in, bjpanda@sansad.nic. in,
rn.pany@sansad.nic.in, kripal@sansad.nic.in, rparmar@sansad.nic.in, patelak@sansad.nic.in, patelm@sansad.nic.in, kspatel@sansad.nic.in,
praful@sansad.nic.in, svpatil@sansad.nic.in, cperumal@sansad.nic.in, pilania.g@sansad.nic.in, pillaitb@sansad.nic.in, thannala@sansad.nic.in,
poojary@sansad.nic.in, ravis@sansad.nic.in, nkprem@sansad.nic.in

balbirk@sansad.nic.in, ethtv2@id.eth.net, mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in, nandiy@sansad.nic.in, mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in, pgn@sansad.nic.in,
samyselvi@sansad.nic.in, emsn@sansad.nic.in, knatwar@sansad.nic.in, rknayak@sansad.nic.in, jpns@sansad.nic.in, p.madhu@sansad.nic.in,
madhu@cpimap.com, pmahajan@sansad.nic.in, sumitram@sansad.nic.in, sakshi@sansad.nic.in, prasadm@sansad.nic.in, pekem@sansad.nic.in,
rajm@sansad.nic.in, c.majumdar@sansad.nic.in, malaisamy@sansad.nic.in, hsmalik@sansad.nic.in, narayans@sansad.nic.in, mangani.mandal@sansad.nic.in,
kamla.manhar@sansad.nic.in, amaroo@sansad.nic.in, mayawati@sansad.nic.in, meenam@sansad.nic.in,mdatta@sansad.nic.in, jmishra@sansad.nic.in,
kmishra@sansad.nic.in, chandan.mitra@sansad.nic.in, pyarimohanap@sansad.nic.in, dipankar@sansad.nic.in, faquir@sansad.nic. in, kmurthy@sansad.nic.in,
lalhming@sansad.nic.in, surendra@sansad.nic.in, drsingh@sansad.nic.in, rkamraj@sansad.nic.in, rdkashyap@sansad.nic.in, krangan@nias.iisc.ernet.in

krishang@sansad.nic.in, narayans@sansad.nic.in, krkhan@sansad.nic.in, spmkhan@sansad.nic.in, robertk@sansad.nic.in, kdas@sansad.nic.in,
m.kidwai@sansad.nic.in, kovindr@sansad.nic.in, kjana@sansad.nic.in, alkak@sansad.nic.in, ajaitley@sansad.nic.in, bjalan@sansad.nic.in,
jetmlni@sansad.nic.in, jetmalni@mantraonline.com, murli@sansad.nic.in, sharad@sansad.nic.in, njothi@sansad.nic.in, dilip@sansad.nic.in,
sgindira@sansad.nic.in, hariprasad@sansad.nic.in, h.malini@sansad.nic.in, najmah@sansad.nic.in, rsgavai@sansad.nic.in, msgill@sansad.nic.in,
bsg@sansad.nic.in, rpgoen@sansad.nic.in, vpgoyal@sansad.nic.in, pgupta@sansad.nic.in,
palden@sansad.nic.in, faguni@sansad.nic. in, oscar@sansad.nic.in, jdarda@sansad.nic.in, vijaydarda@lokmat.com, mdeora@sansad.nic.in,
nirmala@sansad.nic.in, dhawanrk@sansad.nic.in, dhinakaran@sansad.nic.in, rndhoot@sansad.nic.in, dk@sansad.nic. in, npdurga@sansad.nic.in,
jdwivedi@sansad.nic.in, premacariappa@sansad.nic.in, sschandran@sansad.nic.in, pchatterjee@sansad.nic.in, lalit@sansad.nic.in, daras@sansad.nic.in,
achautala@sansad.nic.in, chavanprithviraj@sansad.nic.in, lekhraj@sansad.nic.in,
jbachchan@sansad.nic.in, sanbag@sansad.nic.in, tsbajwa@sansad.nic.in, vsbajwa@sansad.nic.in, barupal@sansad.nic.in, gbasha@sansad.nic.in,
basus@sansad.nic.in, ramdeob@sansad.nic.in, hansrajb@sansad.nic.in, karnendu@sansad.nic.in, jbhatt@sansad.nic. in, manojb@sansad.nic.in,
biswasd@sansad.nic.in, ibora@sansad.nic.in, ubrahma@sansad.nic.in, wahab.a@sansad.nic.in, farooqa@sansad.nic.in, farooq_abdullah@rediffmail.com,
mmagarwal@sansad.nic.in, ssa@sansad.nic.in, ahluwalia@vsnl.com, kuahmed@sansad.nic.in, akarapus@sansad.nic.in, akhileshdas@yahoo.com,
k.akhtar@sansad.nic.in, pcalex@sansad.nic.in, raashid@sansad.nic.in, ambani@sansad.nic.in, ada@ril.com , ada@adaforindia.com, rkamprs@sansad.nic.in, anbalagans@sansad.nic.in, bpapte@sansad.nic. in, bpapte@vsnl.com,
gyapte@vsnl.com, akumar@del2.vsnl.net.in, gandhi@sansad.nic.in, azadg@sansad.nic.in,
asim@sansad.nic.in, okazmi@sansad.nic.in

In http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/12/honble-central-minister-pranab.html, in the last but one paragraph Hon'ble Minister Shri Pranab Mukherjee says:

The Government of India has at no time approved setting up of Institutes, as proposed by the UGC. The Chairman, UGC thereafter informed the Government vide his letter dated November 26, 2003 that the UGC would like to facilitate setting up these institutions as fully autonomous institutions under the universities in which these institutions are to beestablished. Even this proposal was never agreed to by the Government.

and berfore that he says:

As such, the UGC's proposal to establish four Centres for Studies in Integrated Sciences under Sections 12 (ccc) or under 12 (j) of the UGC Act at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Pune could not materialize.

RESPONSE:

1. Perhaps the minister is technically right (I am not even sure of that either), if "The Government of India has approving setting up of Institutes" means that it was approved in the Parliament.

2. Shri Mukherjee's narrative ends on Nove 26' 2003. But following are subsequent events that he did not report and for which we the proof is linked.

2(a) 10th December 2003 PIB report on the then Union HRD and S&T Minister Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi while addressing the parliamentary Consultative Committee addressed to his Ministry, here last evening. http://pib.nic.in/archieve/lreleng/lyr2003/rdec2003/10122003/r1012200313.html and http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2003-pib-nis.pdf It says "Four national-level institutes are also being established at Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Pune and Allahabad."

2(b) 28th December 2003 President's speech: http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/newnis.html and http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/11/president-of-india-had-announced.html and http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/11/speech-of-president-on-28th-dec-2003.html mentions steps being taken towards the establishment of NISs (1 in Bhubaneswar)

2(c) January 2004: http://www.ugc.ac.in/pub/jan_2004/12.htm A January 2004 UGC news talking about 2(b) and saying: "Dr. Joshi also informed the members about the steps initiated by the UGC for improving the relevance and quality of teaching and research, such as introduction of utility-oriented programmes along with the traditional degree; identifying the universities with potential for excellence; to establish four National Institutes of Sciences at Bhubaneshwar, Chennai, Pune and Allahabad; monitoring the universities using parameters for academic performance, research performance and governance and providing incentives to universities and colleges scoring high on these parameters."

2(d) May 2004: 45 page detailed project report http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/dpr_nis.pdf and http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/ugc-45pg-document.pdf which talks about details on the proposed institutes (1 in Bhubaneswar)

3. The above shows how far the decision regarding NISs had been taken and its urgency is revealed when one reads 2(d). Perhaps because of the election laws kicking in they could not go further. But a reasonable person should easily make the conclusion regarding whether the decision was made or not.

Chitta

Dear All:

To day Shri Pranab Mukherjee gave a statement on NIS issue. The statement of the minister was distortion of the fact. It was politically motivated and insult to the people of orissa. Immediately after the statement of the minister all the BJP & BJD MPs protested and sat on dharana in the floor ofthe lok sabha.The lok sabha was adjourned for fifteen minites. After the house resumed the minister assured the house to reconsider the setting up of NIS at orissa Bhubaneswar. After the assurance given by the minister the MPs of orissa allowed to run the house as usal. The statement of the minister is in the aatachment of the e-mail.

JUal Oram

Sir,
A couple of days ago, Hon 'ble Member of Parliament Shri B.K. Tripati and some other Hon 'ble Members representing the State of Orissa wanted to know whether the Government has decided to change the location of National Institute of Science from Bhubneshwar to Kolkata. I assured the Hon'ble Members that after ascertaining the facts I shall come to the House and inform the Members.

Sir, the facts are - On 9th April, 2003, the University Grants Commission (UGC) had taken a decision to establish four Centres for Studies in Integrated Sciences at Allahabad, Bhubaneshwar, Chennai and Pune. These Centres were proposed to be established under Section 12 (ccc) of t~e UGC Act. Vide this Section of the UGC Act, University GrantsCommission is empowered to establish, in accordance with the regulation made under the UGC Act, institutions, for providing common facilities, services and programmes for a group of Universities or for the Universities in general.

Ministry of HRD vide its letter dated 9th June 2003 had raised a query, whether UGC is legally empowered to set up such educational Centres under Section 12 (ccc) of the UGC Act. The matter was further examined in detail in the Ministry of HRD in consultation with the Ministry of Law. The Ministry of Law categorically opined that the UGC cannot establish the proposed Centres for Studies in Integrated Sciences under Sections 12 (ccc) or under 12 (j) of the UGC Act. The UGC was accordingly informed by the Ministry vide its letter dated October 28, 2003. As such, the UGC's proposal to establish four Centres for Studies in Integrated Sciences under Sections 12 (ccc) or under 12 (j) of the UGC Act at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Pune could not materialize.

The Government of India has at no time approved setting up of Institutes, as proposed by the UGC. The Chairman, UGC thereafter informed the Government vide his letter dated November 26, 2003 that the UGC would like to facilitate setting up these institutions as fully autonomous institutions under the universities in which these institutions are to beestablished. Even this proposal was never agreed to by the Government.

The Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister in its meeting held on 4th March 2005, New Delhi under the Chairmanship of Prof. C.N .R. Rao recommended creation of two new institutes devoted to science education and research and also recommended that they may be located at Pune and Kolkata. It was at the recommendation of the SAC-PM that the process of setting up of these two institutes at Pune and Kolkata was initiated by Ministry of Human Resource Development. As there was no decision by the Central Government at any time, to set up a science institute at Bhubaneshwar, the question of shifting of the science institute from Bhubaneshwar to Kolkata does not arise. Therefore, it cannot be said that the Institute has been shifted from Bhabaneshwar to Kolkata.

In Webindia123.com
http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=196437&n_date=20051220&cat=India

and In New Kerala.com
http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=70453

Opposition members in the Rajya Sabha today staged a walkout, dissatisfied by the Government response on the reported denial of a National Institute of Science to Orissa.
Led by the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Biju Janata Dal, the opposition trooped out alleging that Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Suresh Pachauri was ''mixing up issues'' while responding to a Zero Hour Mention on the denial of an NIS to Bhubaneshwar now despite it having been assured earlier.

Earlier, raising the issue, Mr Bijyant Panda (BJD) claimed that the United Progressive Alliance Government was now backing out of an earlier commitment for the setting up of an NIS at Bhubaneshwar on lines similar to the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Sciences.
He said the decision in this regard, taken by the erstwhile National Democratic Alliance Government, envisaged establishment of NISs at Chennai, Pune, Allahabad and Bhubaneshwar to spread the teaching of sciences across the country as against the existing sole institution--the IIS at Bangalore.

Mr Panda said a recent decision by the Government, however, spoke of setting up Regional Institutes of Science (RIS) at Pune and Kolkata-- with no mention of Bhubaneshwar. ''This is discriminatory'', he alleged.

Mr Panda's contention was supported by other members from Orissa and most opposition members.

Responding, Mr Pachauri claimed that the earlier decision-- during the NDA regime--was one taken by the University Grants Commission (UGC) and that the relevant rules under which UGC had decided on the NISs did not empower it to do so.
And this fact, Mr Pachauri further claimed, had later been ascertained by the NDA government itself.

Questioning the validity of the decision on setting up of NISs at four places in the country--as mentioned by Mr Panda, Mr Pachauri said ''The question now is whether a Government decision had ever been taken in this regard... If the NDA government had taken a decision, we will certainly abide by it....'' He, however, assured the members--at the goading of Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat--that he would inform the Minister concerned about the members' sentiments on this issue.

Irked by Mr Pachauri stonewalling on the issue, the opposition trooped out of the House.

Comments: Many thanks to all MPs who are fighting to give justice to this issue. But, the UPA govt seems to forget that it is a democartic country and they have to deliver to the conecerns of its citizen.

From : Dr. Digambara Patra
Sent : Tuesday, December 20, 2005 8:36 AM
To : manmohan@sansad.nic.in, presidentofindia@rb.nic.in, aicc@congress.org.in, dch@yojana.nic.in, cmo@ori.nic.in, brajabhai@rediffmail.com, prafulladas@gmail.com
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Subject : Indian Science Report is of no use and a waste of tax payer money


Dear sir,
I feel preparing Indian Science Report is a waste of human power, money and time. When the government is not utilizing the report for the benefit of the people and country then what is the authenticity of working hard to prepare Indian Science Report? Let me take an example. The Indian Science Report has clearly mentioned about the state-wise regional imbalance while locating national educational institute. However, after reading and quoting that “State-wise regional imbalance of national educational institute in India” from Indian Science Report, our beloved prime minister has announced in the same day and meeting ‘Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research (IISER)’ at Pune and Kolkata without even bothering what is mentioned in the report.

Earlier NDA govt proposed National Institute of Science at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Pune and Chennai when there was no report like ‘Indian Science Report’ which analysed “State-wise regional imbalance of national educational institute in India”. So the question why Allahabad and Pune were considered did not matter a lot at that point of time. The nation could wait two more years after initial proposal of ‘National Institute of Science’ to announce modified version of it as IISER, now the nation could definitely wait another couple of months to take this vital decision about the location by considering state wise regional imbalance of national educational institute! This bring many doubts to our mind.

Was the announcement in hurry for the government? Was not it political to fulfill the desire of certain supporting political parties, so that delay could spoil the decision like the earlier proposal of National Institute of Science? Isn’t the state wise regional imbalance while locating national educational institute in India politically driven rather just a scientific policy and affair by scientific decision makers? Are the scientific decision/policy makers neutral and politically not driven? If the scientific decision and policy makers could have taken this decision on their own, then they must have considered the ‘Indian Science Report’ by INSA before announcing IISER at Kolkata and Pune.

Surisingly next IIFT is again proposed in Kolkata despte West Bengal hosts national educational institutes like IIT, IIM, ISI, Shanti Niketan, why it was not proposed in Patna or Bhubaneswar, the states where there is no national educational institute?

Even if the institutes were already proposed, then the prime minister and the government could wait little more time, at most it could take two more months, to finalize the location after considering state wise regional imbalance of national education institute as mentioned in Indian Science Report!

If ‘Indian Science Report’ is not considered by scientific policy makers, then it would have been like playing double standard while making scientific decision without going to scientific record and national need?

In fact, even if they did not consider ‘Indian Science report’ then also “National Institute of Science (NIS)” and “Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research” would have been the same institute and already proposed locations for NIS would not have been overlooked.

Indeed, the central government would not have denied in their affidavit filed in Cuttack High court that there was no proposal for national institute in Bhubaneswar.

If there was no ill concern, then why Kolkata and Pune were selected over Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Kochi, Lucknow, Indore, Ahemadabad? Do these cities have any deficiencies for hosting a national science institute and/or growing science? Many of them host many center of excellence in education and research.

So sir, if we know things work in this manner then why to waste tax payers money, human resources and so many valuable time to prepare such a document?
Thank you.
With best regards
Digambara Patra


R.N 702
Waseda Step 21
Totsuka-chou 1-103
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo
169-0071, Japan

THEY HAVE CHANGED THE NAME, NOT THE AIM; BUT BEFOOLED THE P.M.

Filed under: Editorials — Subhas C Pattanayak @ 6:54 am

Subhas Chandra Pattanayak

Agents of Bengali interest have changed the name of National Institute of Sciences (NISc) to Indian Institute of Sciences for Education and Research (IISER) and befooled Prime Minister Man Mohan Singh in their illicit attempt to hijack it from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata.

Shifting of the NISc from Bhubaneswar having merited intervention of Orissa High Court, the stand taken by the Union Government do strongly suggest this.

In a petition seeking vacation of the stay order, the Union has informed the Court, that, at no point of time the Central Government had “finally” decided to set up an IISER at Bhubaneswar; hence “ question of its shift to Kolkata does not arise at all”.

In the original writ petition IISER does not figure. The writ petitioner has said if Indian Institute of Science (IISc), not IISER. If the Center has not taken IISc to be IISER, why has it mentioned the later? It could have refuted the IISc issue and said that there was no decision at all to set up IISc at Bhubaneswar and technically that would not have been a mistake. But it has not done so. It has used the abbreviation IISER. This makes it abundantly clear that what the Central Government means by IISER, the writ petitioner has meant exactly that by IISc. On the other hand, IISc is also not the correct expression. Translated as it is from an Oriya newspaper, the translator has given this expression to ‘Jatiya Vigyana Pratisthana’, which should have been National Institute of Sciences (NISc) to be correct. The Central Government knows it. Therefore it has not objected to the incorrect abbreviation IISc.

It is therefore evidently clear that the Central Government knows that the writ petitioner has used IISc for NISc, which was the earlier name of IISER.

more ...

http://orissamatters.com/news/index.php/2005/12/17/they-have-changed-the-name-not-the-aim-but-befooled-the-pm/

By Niranjan Sahu

As announced earlier, Agamee Odisha went ahead with its plan to stage dharna near parliament streetbetween 11.00am to 3.00 pm (16 December 2005) with a crowd of more than eight hundred people coming from all parts of Delhi. Several academicians and students from JNU, DU, IIT and other institutions from Delhi, lawyers, activists, professional and members of parliament joined in the dharna. As many as 18 MPs (BJP and BJD) from Orissa joined the demonstration. Ms. Archana Nayak, Mr. Brajakishore Tripathy, Prasnna Patsani, Rudranarayan Pani, Prasanna Acharya, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sangita Singhdeo, B.J Panda, Kharabela Swain(BJP Deputy Whip, Lok Sabha), Pramila Bohidar, Jual Oram among others participated and spoketo the crowd on the NIS issue. The most surprise pack was the presence of Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, the then HRD Minister who had played an instrumental role in announcing establishment of NIS at Bhubaneswar and three other locations. He directly questioned the intention of the present HRD Minister in denying the report that the establishment of NIS was never mooted in Bhubaneswar. He said that NIS must be established in Orissa which deserves such an institution being a backward state in the eastern region. He assured to raise the issue in the Parliament.

Mr. Braja Kishore Tripathy, MP (BJD) brought to the notice of the audience and press that the issue has been raised by Orissa MPs in the Parliament and they have already made a walkout and sat on a dharna nearthe statue of Mahatma Gandhi. But if the Centre does not respond positively, they will resort to adjournment in the Parliament and raise it before the Prime Minister. Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, MP (BJP) demanded for immediate restoration of NIS status and assured that he would raise this issue through the NDA Parliamentary Committee.It was unanimously decided to keep the pressure on and fight it out until something positive happens. MPs have pledged to remain vigilant on the issue and leave no stone unturned in Parliament to bring back the pride of Oriyas. Many prominent lawyers who participated in the dharna promised to file PIL on the issue in Supreme Court if the central government finds an easy way from the current PIL filed in the Orissa High Court. The issue has been widely covered by English and Hindi national media (Electronic andPrint) apart from ETV and OTV. Dr. S.K. Tripathy, Mr. L.M.Pattanaik and Mr. AjayaPattanaik from Agamee Odisha with active support from Niranjan, Gyana, Jatin, Anindita, Sandipani, Atanu, Bibhu and Manoj of New Delhi (students of DU and JNU, and professionals) coordinated the event at JanturMantur.

(Newindpress)- Thanks to Mr. Kanhu Raul from New Jersy
December 17 2005 09:13 IST

BHUBANESWAR: A high level delegation from CPM on Friday met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi and submitted a memorandum demanding establishment of National Science Institute (NIS) in Orissa under the Utkal University.

The delegation also demanded early commencement of work of the proposed petrochemical complex at Paradip and branch of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Sijua near here.

Other demands of the delegation included granting IIT status to Burla Engineering College.

The delegation included politburo member Sitaram Yechury, Leader of CPM in Lok Sabha Basudev Acharya, Secretary of the Orissa committee Janardan Pati, P Madhu, Babu Rao, Dipankar Mukherjee and Amitav Nandi.

Foundation stones for the oil refinery at Paradip and AIIMS branch at Sijua were laid by then Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee when NDA was in power at the Centre. However, both the projects have not taken off.

While the oil refinery project has been enhanced to a petrochemical complex, the AIIMS project is yet to start. Besides, the Centre has decided to shift the proposed NIS from Orissa to West Bengal drawing criticism from all quarters.

The delegation alleged that the NDA Government had announced the projects without making any budgetary provision. The Prime Minister assured the delegation that he will take steps for starting these projects.

Meanwhile, the state unit of Samajwadi Party staged a dharna on Friday in front of the Raj Bhavan demanding establishment of NIS in Orissa. A delegation from the party led by State unit chief Baisnab Parida met Governor Rameswar Thakur and submitted a memorandum to him in this regard.

comment: Highly appreciated to see all party efforts for this great cause but do not make it a political issue by accusing each other.

As announced earlier, Agamee Odisha on Friday staged a dharna at Jantar Mantar near Parliament Street in Delhi, with hundreds of people joining it, demanding establishment of the proposed National Institute of Science (NIS) in Orissa. Several academics and students from JNU, DU, IIT and other institutions from Delhi, lawyers, activists, professionals and MPs participated in the programme.

As many as 18 MPs of the BJP and the BJD from Orissa joined the demonstration. Among them were Jual Oram, Archana Nayak, Brajakishore Tripathy, Prasanna Patsani, Rudranarayan Pani, Prasanna Acharya, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sangeeta Singh Deo, BJ Panda, Kharabela Swain and Pramila Bohidar.

The presence of Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, the then HRD Minister who had played an instrumental role in announcing establishment of NIS in Bhubaneswar, was the highlight of the programme. He directly questioned the intention of the present HRD Minister in denying the report that the establishment of NIS was never mooted in Bhubaneswar. He said NIS must be established in Orissa, which deserves such an institution as it is a backward State in the eastern region. He also assured to raise the issue in Parliament.

Mr Brajakishore Tripathy recalled that the issue has been raised by Orissa MPs in Parliament, and they staged a walkout and sat on a dharna near the statue of Mahatma Gandhi. If the Centre still does not respond positively, they would demand adjournment of the House and draw the Prime Minister's attention to the issue. Mr Dharmendra Pradhan assured that he would raise this issue at the NDA Parliamentary Committee.

It was unanimously decided to fight for the State's cause until it is achieved. Many prominent lawyers, who participated in the dharna, promised to file a PIL on the issue in the Supreme Court, if the Centre finds an easy way from the current PIL filed in the Orissa High Court.

Friends,

The very heartening news from Delhi. As announced earlier, we put up a dharna near parliament street from 11.00am to 3.00 pm with a crowd of four hundred people coming from all parts of Delhi. We had a strong contigent from Bhubaneswar representing Agami Odisha. Several students from JNU, DU, IIT and other institutions also joined the dharna. Faculty from DU, JNU and other academic instituions took part in the rally. There were strong presence from Orissa professionals, media and lawyers. Even people from working communities came and expressed their solidarity. Almost all MPs joined with us in the dharna. Ms. Archana Nayak, Mr. Brajakishore Tripathy, Rudranarayan Pani, Prasanna Acharya, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sangita Singhdeo, BJ Panda, Kharabela Swain, Pramila Bohidar, Jual Oram among others participated and spoke to the crowd on NIS issue. But most surprise pack was Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, the then HRD Minister who had played an instumental role came and addressed the crowd and media on NIS issue. He was scathing in attack on Arjun Singh for lying about NIS issue to Parliament and called up UPA government to stop politicising issue and mistreat Orissa. He assured to raise the issue in Parliament.

It was unanimously decided to keep the pressure on and fight it out until something positive happens. Our MPs have pledged to remain vigilant on the issue and leave no stone unturned in Parliament to bring justce to Oriya pride.

Lets keep the fight on top gear and never give up.

Jai Utkal Janani

Niranjan Sahoo
Delhi

....Mr Gamanga and Mr Tripathy took NIS issue to the parliament again. Mr Gamanga urges govt to make clear whether NIS and IISER are same or different. He also demanded for a central university in KBK region.
....................

See the Opinoin of Saubhagya Laxmi Mohapatra.Editor, WorldORISSA. on NIS/IISER.
She is absolutely right on her demand, We need IISER back in Bhubaneswar.
Regards Dhirendra

Orissa Needs your help. NIS/IISER Home
Our demand "IISER Bhubaneswar". It's time to make it bold, make it formal.
Many terms are being used for the proposed higher education institutions of science in in India. IISER, NIS, NIS like IISC, science center etc. Certainly our claim is to establish one in Bhubaneswar that is equivalent to the one to be established in Pune. It's time now to bring one of the IISER to Orissa, while realizing the concerned authorities that the NIS’ an institution in the same direction was already in progress. GOI should take decision to establish IISER in Bhubaneswar, as it is doing for Pune.

IISER and NIS are two different ones. They have different status and vastly different scope and budget level. The similarity is in the direction, in the goal, that is “to use higher-level science education for the progress of the nation”.
An NIS, NIT or NI for any ABC discipline is an institute of national importance, where as IISER, IISc, IITs, IIMs are institutions of international importance. You might have noticed the official documents say “an NIS in the line of IISc”. An NIS is not an IISc but it is a miniature form of the first. Asking for NIS is like we have decided to compromise even before the fight has began. This is like giving the permission to the center to choose our neighbors over us. We should not ask what we were promised for but what we deserve. That is an “IISER”. This Government has an IISER to offer and that should be our demand. We might use NIS/IISER in our discussions but we should put IISER in our demand. But using only NIS is like clearing the way for IISER Kolkata. Whatever we say NIS, IISER or NIS like IISc B'lore, I believe every one of us is meaning an IISER (Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research) just like IISER, Pune but we need to make it formal in all our communications and demands.

NIS in Bhubaneswar was the need of the time when it was supposed to be built. It was a concept of development half a decade back. Time runs first these days. India has changed a lot since then. Our mass protest, which has involved Oriyas, worldwide, there we need to demand an IISER. This is because need has already been felt and the process has already been initiated and if we do not rise for it now, we will soon lose the chance for many decades to come. It is high time for GOI to spend for higher education institutions in Orissa. Above all how much we spend in the name of any institutions, GOI is the only authority to bring the institutions of the status of IIT, IIM, IISc.

When GOI decided to go for Institutions of science for international standard again the question must have come for four, in four regions. For south IISc, Balngalore is already there. In north being the nations capital region is flooded with national and international level institutions, head quarters of all research institutes. So it might not have been difficult, not to offer north an IISER in an urgent basis. In west, instead of NIS Pune, GOI decided to establish IISER. So our demand is to build an IISER in Bhubaneswar to cater the eastern region of the country, as has been decided for the West . Rather I would repeat my demand that nation’s first IISER should come to Orissa, as it is the most deserving destination. There should not be any other institutions of Science of International importance in the eastern region before the Bhubaneswar project is finished.

Editor, WorldORISSA.com

...
Thus despite the UGC and HRD ministry announcing the plan to set up four such institutes, at least in the first phase the two states, not having the right equation with the Central government, seem to have been left out. ...

Lok Sabha adjourned before lunch

New Delhi: Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today adjourned the Lok Sabha abruptly just before lunch-recess as BJP member M A Kharabela Swain entered the well of the House, raising the issue of shifting of National Institute of Science from Bhubaneshwar.

Mr Swain, who had given notices on earlier occasions, wanted a reply from the Government. But, the Speaker did not allow him because he had not given notice today.

Persistently requesting the Speaker to allow him to raise the issue, Mr Swain said Leader of House Pranab Mukherjee could reply to his issue. But, Mr Chatterjee ruled that he had not given notice.

The angry BJP leader entered the well, leading to Mr Chatterjee adjourning the House minutes before the lunch-recess.

http://www.orissasamaya.com/national.asp#378

Dear All,

The meeting of intellectuals with the Governor on the issue of NIS during the 'Citizen's Rally' on 11th Dec. 2005, holds much importance as Mr. Rameshwar Thakur, the Hon’ble Governor, is also an academician himself. The 20 minutes discussion with him went on very well. He was well aware of the issue and all the developments related to the NIS movement. Some of the key points of his observation and suggestions are:

1. Odisha does not have a good institution for high quality basic science education with research facilities. However, as the state is going for massive industrialization the need for such facilities are urgent and should be given priority.

2. Activists should take up one demand at a time. People involved in the movement should have a single demand, i.e. for NIS, instead of creating confusions by demanding for central university or any other thing in addition to that.

3. PIL as a method may delay the process of actualization of the demand. The Government would always find reasons not to take any decision on this issue under the plea of the matter being subjudiced.

4. Honourable Members of Parliament from Orissa must raise this issue in the parliament irrespective of their party affiliation. Members of Agamee Odisha going to Delhi for the 16th Dec. demonstration must coordinate with all the MPs and urge them to actively support the cause. In this context, he appreciated the role of Agamee Odisha, particularly its apolitical stand, taken on the issue.

5. He will definitely take up the matter with the center and strongly recommend for the establishment of NIS in Orissa.


Let's keep the movement alive and vibrant till we reach the goal


Supriti Mishra


Agamee Odisha

http://dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=BHUBANESWAR&file_name=bhub13%2Etxt&counter_img=13


CM to take up NIS issue with Centre

Bhubaneswar: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik will leave for a four-day visit to Delhi from Tuesday and be back on December 16. Mr Patnaik will take up the issue of shifting of National Institute of Science (NIS) and urge the Centre to reconsider its decision.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Chitta's comment:

We hope this time he is not hoodwinked by mumbo-jumbo like
RCSIS, like the last time he brought this up with the HRD minister.
http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/10/subterfuge-part-ii.html

He should take along with him the 45 page UGC document
http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/11/45-page-ugc-document-on-nis.html, the reference to the President's formal announcement
http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/newnis.html, and should not settle for anything less than an IISER or equivalent.

Statesman News ServiceKENDRAPARA, Dec. 11. —

The West Bengal government would extend all support to Orissa on the National Institute of Sciences (NIS) issue and Left Front MPs may take it up with the Prime Minister's Office,the West Bengal minister, Mr Suryakanta Misra, declared here today. Talking to The Statesman, the minister, however, refused to delve further into the controversy over the alleged shifting of the proposed NIS project from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata. He refuted the charge that the UPA government was being forced to shift the project to Kolkata under pressure from the Left parties.

Since the matter is sub-judice with a PIL pending before the Orissa High Court it's not prudent to comment on the controversy, Mr Misra,who was here to attend the two-day state level conference of farmers, said.

As the country's eastern region lags behind in the sphere of science and technology development, why can such institutes be not established both at Bhubaneswar and Kolkata, he asked before adding that If required, the Left Front MPs would take up Orissa's interest with the PMO.

...

Leaders, academics come together to demand NIS in Orissa

Pioneer News Service / Bhubaneswar

A number of academics, lawyers, medical practitioners, industrialists, MPs, retired bureaucrats, students and social activists organised a rally to voice their demand for setting up of the National Institute of Science (NIS) in the State. The rally, organised under the banner of Agamee Odisha, marched towards the Governor's house to press their demands.
More than a hundred and fifty people, who gathered at AG Square, later submitted a memorandum to Governor Rameshwar Thakur, urging him to intervene in the matter.

A delegation of five -- Padmashree Debi Prasanna Pattanaik, Mr DK Roy (Chairman, Kalinga Hospital & ex-DG Income Tax), Professor Digambar Mishra of the State University of Alabama USA, Mr LM Pattanaik (President, Nalco Employees' Union) and Prof SK Tripathy of Utkal University -- submitted the memorandum to the Governor.

...

Source: Supriti Mishra on behalf of Agami Orissa.

Addressing presspersons at a meeting of State ministers, heads of State science and technology departments and directors of State science and technology councils here on Saturday, Dr. Rao said two national institutes of science education and research will commence functioning in Pune and Kolkata from June 2006, and Rs. 500 crores will be spent on each of them in five years.

.... The two campuses of Indian Institute of Science Education and Research in Pune and Kolkata, set up on the lines of Indian Institute of Science with an initial budget of Rs 500 crore, will be operational from June 2006, Rao added. .....

Friends,

In Today's meeting it was decided to submit Memorandum to The President of India on his sojourn visit to BBSR on 25th Dec'05.

lalit pattnaik

Friends,

MP Mohan Jena is coming from Jajpur along with his group to join the rally. MP Archana Naik has arranged meeting with Governor at 10.45 am. She will join the rally with her 100 friends. MP Dharmendra Pradhan is also joining with his group. Mr Bibhuti Mohanty, Ex president U.U, is also joining with his friends.Mr Ajit Das, eminent Lawer will also join with hislawer friends. Mr Ajay Pattnaik, prominent Industrialist, will also join with his friends. All will proceed under the Banner of "Agami Odisha" led by Dr. Tripathy, Mr Suderson, Mrs Supriti Mishra. Let us wish all of us success.

lalit pattnaik

....Non-representation of a single member from the State in the Union Cabinet indicates the Congress attitude to the State, Pradhan said and cautioned the Centre that the State will not tolerate the shifting of National Institute of Science (NISc) to Kolkata.

PIL Against Center's Affidavit on NIS Filled in HC

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec9-statesman1.pdf

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec9-statesman.pdf

CUTTACK, Dec. 8. — The PIL over the alleged shifting of a proposed National Institute of Science (NIS) from Orissa gathered fresh heat with the Orissa State Public Interest Protection Council (OSPIPC) challenging the veracity of the claims made by Mr Prem Kumar, under secretary in the ministry of HRD, in an affidavit submitted in the High Court here. Mr Kumar had stated in the affidavit that no decision was ever taken to set up any such science institution at Bhubaneswar.
The OSPIPC has alleged that Mr Kumar had misled the court. Mr Prem Kumar in his affidavit had stated that no policy decision was finalised by the Central government for setting up any science institution at Bhubaneswar.
The PIL is expected to be taken up for hearing on 12 December. The OSPIPC president, Mr Prasanta Das, in a fresh petition has claimed that the UGC had in December 2003 communicated to the vice-chancellor of the Utkal University, a decision to establish National Institute of Science at four places (Bhubaneswar, Pune, Allahabad and Chennai). This was followed by a letter from a High Power Committee of the UGC in April 2004 indicating about preparation of a project report on it. The chief minister, Mr Naveen Patnaik, had sent at least three letters to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, requesting him not to shift the proposed NIS from Bhubaneswar, the petition has pointed out.
It has sought direction to implead Utkal University in the case and production of all letters that formed a part of the communication between the UGC and the HRD ministry over the proposed NIS at Bhubaneswar.
Earlier in August 2005, the OSPIPC president had filed a public interest petition seeking judicial intervention against the shifting of the proposed NIS from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata. Acting on it, the Orissa High Court had on 9 November issued an interim order directing the Union government to stay the shifting of the proposed science institution from Bhubaneswar to any other part of eastern India”. Subsequently, Mr Prem Kumar in an affidavit clarified that the Union Cabinet had in November 2005 decided in favour of creation of two new institutions devoted to science education and research. The Cabinet decision was taken on the recommendation of the Scientific Advisory Council to the Prime Minister. Subsequently, the Central government had decided to locate the two IISRE at Pune and Kolkata, the affidavit clarified while seeking grant of leave to set up an Indian Institute for Science Research Education (IISRE) in Kolkata.
The affidavit had further stated that in March 2003, the UGC had come up with a proposal to establish a advanced centre for science and technical education at four places, one of them being in Bhubaneswar. The UGC proposal however, was subsequently not approved by the HRD ministry after seeking opinion of the law ministry, Mr Prem Kumar had maintained in the affidavit.
It may be noted that the NIS issue had dominated the state Assembly session on 23 November. The state higher education minister, Mr Samir Dey, had alleged that the UPA government did not take any follow up action after it came to power in 2004. The idea of setting up a National Institute of Sciences was mooted by the then Prime Minister, Mr AB Vajpayee and HRD minister Mr MM Joshi, the minister had pointed out. Even today the matter figured in the Assembly.

Legislators on dharana

Bhubaneswar

While the State Assembly was witnessing an uproarious scene over the shifting of the National Institute of Sciences (NIS) from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata, 20 of the BJD-BJP MLAs from the ruling coalition staged a dharna under the statute of Mahatma Gandhi located inside the assembly premises on Thursday.

The MLAs blamed the Central Government for the shifting of the NIS from the State.

They flayed at the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the incident. The MLAs including Pratap Jena, Prabhat Biswal, Sanchita Mohanty, Arun Sahoo, Rama raman Baliyar Singh, Puspesh Singh Deo, sat on the dhrna for over one hour.

Details at: http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec9-pioneer.pdf

NIS shifting dominates Assembly

Pioneer News Service/ Bhubaneswar

The shifting of the proposed National Institute of Sciences issue once again
dominated the proceedings of the State Assembly on Thursday.

The Higher Education Minister Samir Dey in response to a question from Aswini
Patra and Bishnu Das said the shifting of the NIS has been a conspiracy by the
Central Government hatched in the wake of the ensuing election of West Bengal.

Mr Dey informed the house that the Speaker has already announced to constitute
a House Committee, which would Delhi to discuss the matter with the Prime
Minister. The Chief Minister Nveen Patnaik had already apprised the Prime
Minister the concern of the State over the issue and the PM has reportedly
assured Mr Patnaik that the NIS would not be shifted.

However, the Center in its affidavit maintained that there was no proposal for
establishing the NIS in Bhubaneswar.

He however, said the affidavit in the Orissa High Court on the shifting of the
NIS was not based on facts.

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec9-statesman.pdf

Charges traded over NIS issue

Statesman News Service

BHUBANESWAR, Dec. 8. — The issue of shifting of the proposed National Institute of Sciences from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata cropped up in the Assembly again today, even as ruling BJD-BJP legislators staged a dharna outside the House as a mark of protest against the "step-motherly treatment" of the UPA government to Orissa.

More than 30 ruling BJD-BJP members sat on dharna near Mahatma Gandhi's statue inside the Assembly premises and shouted slogans against the UPA government. They also held placards and raised slogans against Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

Rest at http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec9-statesman.pdf

Until now we have been using many different groups. We will still use them for selecetd communication. But for routine daily communication we have created a specialized group.

Please join it through

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/nis_iiser

Thanks
Chitta

From: Chitta Baral Mailed-By: gmail.com

To: jual oram

Cc: manmohan@sansad.nic.in, dch@yojana.nic.in, mvraja@yojana.nic.in, kirit.parikh@yojana.nic.in, abhijit.sen@yojana.nic.in, vl.chopra@yojana.nic.in, b.mungekar@yojana.nic.in, s.hameed@yojana.nic.in, yugandhar.bn@nic.in, anwarul.hoda@yojana.nic.in, toieditorial@timesgroup.com, salil@hindustantimes.com, letters@outlookindia.com, info@newindpress.com, thehindu@vsnl.com, letters@thehindu.co.in, letters-ie@expressindia.com, letters@deccanherald.co.in, letters@tribuneindia.com, feedback@tehelka.com, editor@expressindia.com, ttedit@abpmail.com, ratnam@intoday.com, editor@the-week.com, editor@deccanmail.com, shishir.joshi@aajtak.com, contact@bworldmail.com, mail@outlookindia.com, itgo@india-today.com, editet@timesgroup.com, sbpsambad@rediffmail.com, sanjayajena@gmail.com, rahulkashyap@hotmail.com, sudheenkulkarni@rediffmail.com, goodluckindia@hotmail.com, akv1008@yahoo.com, mishrarkl@yahoo.com, sirishsirishmohanty@rediffmail.com, ratikanta@timeinfosystems.com, premsagar_rkl@sancharnet.in, das_navin@indiatimes.com, jatindash@hotmail.com, ddnews@yahoo.co.in, kishoredwibedi@rediffmail.com, nilamberrath@etv.co.in, neerajindia@hotmail.com, guptasmita@outlookindia.com, officeofjaypanda@vsnl.net, Sandipan Deb , myodisa@yahoogroups.com, calnet@yahoogroups.com, canosanet@yahoogroups.com, ajaitley@sansad.nic.in, ashourie@sansad.nic.in, murli@sansad.nic.in, pmahajan@sansad.nic.in, mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in, mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in, jaswant@sansad.nic.in, ysinha@sansad.nic.in, advanilk@sansad.nic.in, bidwai@bol.net.in, ddd@rediff.co.in, prabhatpatnaik@mail.jnu.ac.in, soniagandhi@sansad.nic.in, rajaram satapathy , odisha@rediffmail.com, puru@ndtv.com, pragativadi@pragativadi.com, sambadadvt@yahoo.co.in, samaj@orissanews.com, samajbbsr@yahoo.com, statesmanbbsr@vsnl.net, samajactc@hotmail.com, brajabhai@rediffmail.com, prafulladas@gmail.com, debabrata_m@yahoo.com, soumyajitpattnaik@yahoo.com


Dear esteemed MP Mr. Oram:

Please request the HRD ministry in the center for a state wise breakdown of spending by their higher education department, for the last year
and beyond (say last10, 20, 50 years).

Eventhough the inequity of higher education HRD spending among states is obvious by knowing which states have IITs, IIMs, central universities etc, it seems we need that data to convince the national media and the powers in Delhi about our fight regarding the subterfuge adopted to shift an announced (by the president and HRD minister) NIS (National Institute of Sciences) in Bhubaneswar.

( For proof of the above see:
http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/newnis.html
http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2003-dec28-president-ugc.pdf )

Please raise this question in the parliament.

Please suggest the HRD ministry that even if they do not maintain that data, it should be easy to calculate as they should have the data about the budgets of various institutes and UGC grants to the universities and the state these institutes and universities are located in.

I am copying this message to the esteemed planning commission members, whose job is to maintain balance across India and who from the various indications have done an extremely poor job so far with respect to higher education.

They have done a decent job with respect to many other fields though.
For that they deserve our sincere thanks.

I sincerely hope that the planning commission, the prime minister and the national media do not believe that only people in certain states should have easy access to higher education and others such as in Orissa,
Chhatisgarh, Rajasthan etc. do not. Many in Orissa have started having doubts and they say:

Why else would the planning commission rubber stamp the government's decision to rename NIS to IISER and remove the announced one from Bhubaneswar? (Even when the President of India, as well
as the HRD minister had made a formal announcement on this and had prepared a 45 page detailed project report on this!)

( For proof of the above see: http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/dpr_nis.pdf
http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/ugc-45pg-document.pdf
http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/newnis.html
http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2003-dec28-president-ugc.pdf )

Why else the rest of the planning commission members have not gone out and publicly supported the esteemed education member Prof. Mungekar's view that the new IITs should be regionally balanced, and there is still news about some states having 3 IITs and 2 IITs while others have none.
See http://newiits.blogspot.com for more thoughts on this.

Why else, the planning commission has not thought about having central universities in backward district clusters of India. How can these districts improve if teachers, doctors, etc. refuse to go there? (In case it is not obvious to them, the answer is by producing their own teachers and doctors, which can happen if central universities are established there.) See http://kbkcentral.blogspot.com for more thoughts on this.

In general, why else it has not bothered the planning commission, the PM
and the national media (beyond what seems like a lip service by our esteemed PM on the day he announced establishment of IISERs) that many states in India do not have top quality HRD ministry funded
higher education institutions such as IIT, IIM, IISc, Central Univs etc., while others have multiples of them? And even when this has been pointed out to the planning commission, the PM, and the national press, they all have decided to keep mum!

What happened to India's great tradition of impartial planning commission members and statesman PMs who cared about all of India, not just the states that supported the existing government in the election?

What happened to the national media, who rightly scream when a starvation death happens in Kalahandi, but who don't seem to care
when root issues like inequity in education is pointed out to them?
They don't seem to notice that this issue has rocked Orissa and there
is almost daily coverage of this in the Orissa media, including the Orissa editions of the national newspapers. Why can't the national media do an investigative piece on how higher education money in the HRD ministry is spread across states? This will have more impact on the common people of India than the Volcker report on which their eyes seem to be fixated.

Since despite thousands of letters to the PM (even several by the Orissa
chief minister) and letters to the planning commission, and the national media, no response has been received, I hope the MPs of NDA (because of whose openness and transparency, in that they put many of the National Institute of Science documents in the web, we were able to see various documents on NIS and thus discover the heist) and former ministers
will strongly raise the NIS renaming and shifting issue in the parliament as well as in the media and help the HRD ministry reverse its course from greater inequity to an equal India.

sincerely

Chitta Baral

Professor
Department of computer Science & Eng.
Arizona State University
http://www.public.asu.edu/~cbaral

Bhubaneswar: The ruling BJD-BJP members today resorted to a sit-in before the statue of Mahamta Gandhi inside the Assembly premises protesting against the proposed shifting of the NIS to Kolkata.

Carrying placards and banners, about 20 ruling party MLAs including women members, remained away during the question hour and staged demonstration shouting slogans against Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairpersons Sonia Gandhi.

The dharna continued for nearly one hour and the agitated MLAs returned to the house during the zero hour to take part in the proceedings of the house.

Rest at http://www.newkerala.com/news.php?action=fullnews&id=63653

Local copy: http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec8-sambada.pdf

Hundreds of activists of the Samajabadi Chatra Sabha , the State unit of the of Samajabadi Party on Monday sat on a dharna demanding the establishment of an Indian Institute of Technology(IIT) in the model of IIT, Kharagpur.



The president of Chatra Sabha maheswar Das urged the state Government to ensure education and employment for all in the State. The president of the Samajbadi Party State unit Baisnav Parida addressing the gathering said the Government should take initiatives in the establishment of the IIT and National Institute of Sciences with a view to promote science and technical education in the State.

In the afternoon of Sunday, the 4th Dec.2005, the Steering Committee of Agamee Odisha met in Vani Vihar to decide on the future course of action on NIS. The Committee, which comprised of intellectuals, social activists, peoples’representatives, lawyers and student leaders, resolved to make the movement vibrant and ticking till the demand for NIS in Orissa is fulfilled by the Central Government.

The meeting was presided over by Padmashree Dr. Debi Prasanna Pattnaik. The meeting was attended by representatives from the broader civil society like people’s representative Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan (MP); retired senior bureaucrats- Mr. Dhiren K. Roy, Ex-DG Income Tax and Mr. Abasar Beuria, Ex-Ambassador; Professors - Sadananda Tarasia, GBN Chainy, Pratap Rath, Puspanjali Jena, Dhanada Kanta Mishra, S.K.Tripathy; eminent lawyer Mr. Ajit Das; industrialists- Mr. Bibhuti Mohanty and Mr. Ajay Prasad Pattnaik; representatives from PSUs-Mr. Ashesh Padhi of HINDALCO who had also spearheaded the IIT movement for UCE Burla, and president of NALCO officers’ association Mr. Lalit Pattnaik; social activists - Mrs. Kasturi Mohapatra, Mr. Nirakar Beuria, Mrs Supriti Mishra and Mr. Sudarsan Das; student representatives - Mr. Anil Rout, Mr. Ranjit Mohapatra, Mr. Rajat Kar and Mr. Dillip Sabat among others .

At the outset the organizers thanked the press, both print & electronic, for their continuous highlighting of the issue. They also expressed their gratitude towards the Members of Parliament from Orissa and the Members of Orissa Legisletive Assembly for their support and actions undertaken for the cause.Various ideas were exchanged among the participants to strengthen the issue and the following decisions were taken to carry forward the movement.

1. It was decided to organize a peaceful Mashal Samabesh by the students on 8thDecember on Master canteen to sensitize the public on the issue. At the end ofthe Samabesh, they will submit a memorandum to the Chief Minister of Orissa.

2. On 11th December a Citizens’ Rally by the senior citizens will start from AG Square to Raj Bhavan to submit a memorandum to Honourable Governor of Orissa.

3. It was also decided to have a protest Dharna in New Delhi at Jantar Mantar on 16th December 2005.

4. It was decided to bring out a small booklet on the issue both in English & Oriya to sensitize the people on the issue.

Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, MP assured of all necessary support to make the rally successful at New Delhi and for making the movement a success at all levels. He appreciated the fact that, after many years intellectuals have become united for the interest of the state, which is a unique characteristic of this movement. Ms. Archana Nayak, MP, has also talked to our Agamee Odisha members and expressed her support for the cause. All the members contributed Rs.100/- each as a token of contribution for thecause.

P.S.- There was a typological error in the accounts statement of the 20th Nov. students’ convention. Please read the total expenses as Rs. 15300.00 instead of Rs.15500.00. We regret the error.

In the 4th Dec. meeting Mr. XYZ (a non-congress MP who is firmly behind this protest) suggested the same thing that we were discussing earlier. He resented the reaction of some people against the Congress on the NIS issue in some of these e-forums. He was of the view that the intellectuals should be above their bias towards any political party and they should go taking all these groups along with them . This is particularly important as the party is in power at the centre. This is a feeling of some of the Oriya MPs and we think we should be careful about that. We are planning for the Delhi convention on 16th Dec. with cooperation from Dharmendra Pradhan and Archana Nayak.

...

The other thing I missed out is, the 4th Dec. meeting was covered by Sambada, Pragativadi and Samaya. On 4th Dec., Otv also showed the NISas their first news items in 'Pratidin' showing pictures of the 45 page document and other documents which Santosh had carried to the Bishesh Drusti. Besides, it showed the interviews of CPM and Congress party members besides that of Santosh and Narendra Mishra, Ex-ViceChancellor of Utkal Univ. of Culture on the issue.

and

http://pragativadi.com/ also had a report the same day.

BJP Yuva morcha convention will hightlight shifting of the National Institute of Sciences by the UPA Government under pressure from the Left parties on December 9

.....NDA leaders also decided to vociferously protest against the government's reported move to shift the National Institute of Science from Bhubaneswar to West Bengal.

The last sentence of the above report:

Briefing the media BJD leader B K Tripahi said the NDA leaders also decided to vociferously protest agianst the government's reported move to shift the National Institute of Science from Bhubaneswar to West Bengal. PTI

NDA proposed NIS at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Pune and Chennai when there was no report like ‘Indian Science Report’ which analysed “State-wise regional imbalance of national educational institute in India”. So the question why Allahabad and Pune were considered does not matter a lot at that point of time.

However, after reading and admiring that “State-wise regional imbalance of national educational institute in India” from ‘Indian Science Report’ prepared by INSA;

Why did UPA government announce ‘Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research (IISER)’ at Pune and Kolkata in the same day without considering the ‘Indian Science Report’ even though the prime minister read the report before releasing the report and announcing IISER at Pune and Kolkata?

The nation could wait two more years after initial proposal of ‘National Institute of Science’ to announce modified version of it as IISER, the nation could definitely wait another couple of months to take this vital decision?

If the institutes were already proposed, then the prime minister and the government could wait little more time, at most it could take two more months, to finalize the location after considering state wise regional imbalance of national education institute as mentioned in Indian Science Report!

Was the announcement in hurry for the government?

Was not it political to fulfill the desire of certain supporting political parties, so that delay could spoil the decision like the earlier proposal of National Institute of Science?

Isn’t the state wise regional imbalance while locating national educational institute in India politically driven rather just a scientific policy and affair by scientific decision makers?

Are the scientific decision/policy makers neutral and politically not driven?

If the scientific decision and policy makers could have taken this decision on their own, then they must have considered the ‘Indian Science Report’ by INSA before announcing IISER at Kolkata and Pune.

If ‘Indian Science Report’ is not considered by scientific policy makers, then it would have been like playing double standard while making scientific decision without going to scientific record and national need?

In fact, even if they did not consider ‘Indian Science report’ then also “National Institute of Science (NIS)” and “Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research” would have been the same institute and already proposed locations for NIS would not have been overlooked.

Indeed, the central government would not have denied in their affidavit filed in Cuttack High court that there was no proposal for national institute in Bhubaneswar.

If there was no ill concern, then why Kolkata and Pune were selected over Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Bhubaneswar, Chandigarh, Kochi, Lucknow, Indore, Ahemadabad?

Do these cities have any deficiencies for hosting a national science institute and/or growing science? Many of them host many center of excellence in education and research.

Renaming NIS to IISER and changing the location deepens the following doubts further:

Indian scientific policy makers and their decision are not independent from the Indian politics and political cloud.

This bring another big and great question,

Are Indian Science and scientific policy free from Indian politics as claimed by our honorable leaders and prime minister?

Is Indian Science above politics and safe for future?

Speaker, Mr Chattarjee: speakerloksabha@sansad.nic.in

Deputy Speaker Mr Singh: Email: csatwal@rediffmail.com, iisatwal@hotmail.com

Leader of Opposition, Advaniji: advanilk@sansad.nic.in

BJD protests shifting of science institute

The Biju Janata Dal members staged a dharna in the well of the Lok Sabha during Zero Hour protesting the UPA government’s decision to set up the proposed National Institute of Science at Kolkata instead of Bhubaneswar. Party leader Brij Kishore Tripathy said Orissa, which had been been a victim of ‘‘such ill-treatment in the past’’ did not have even a single IIT or IIM or any such central institution.

(Reported on 1st December)

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-1318473,curpg-2.cms (given in the last paragraph)


.....BJD leader B K Tripahi said the NDA leaders also decided to vociferously protest against the government's reported move to shift the National Institute of Science from Bhubaneswar to West Bengal.

....He said that Kolkata and Pune would soon have centres of excellence on the line of Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore, adding that the National Chemical Laboratory in Pune have already allotted 100 acres of land for the proposed Indian Institute of Science, Education and Research....

Dear Friends,

Our movement has no time to look back.

To-day at 3.30 pm in Faculty Club of UU, intellectuals started flooding in with one day notice call by Agami Orissa for Bhubaneswar. Many a new faces arrived. This speaks volumes of interest and enthusisim created in past one month. As a token of instant financial support all of them donated Rs 100/- each.

MP Debendra Pradhan came from farthest place of Delhi to attend the meeting and Inside Orissa Er Ashesh Padhi, Secretary UCE Alumni came from Hirakud.


Following programme chalked out:-

11.12.05(9am) Intellectual Rally from AG square to Raj Bhawan. Memorandum to be submited to Governor

16.12.05 Rally at Junter Munter New Delhi.Memorandum to be submited to PM.

All are requested to do whatever they can but with following policy.

1/ No accusition to any party or any individual.

2/ The focus of speaker's should be only on NIS in Orissa and nothing else.

3/ Whoever comes in support of our cause are with us (oriya or non-oriya).

Mrs Supriti Mishra, Mr Suderson Das and Dr SK Tripathy are doing wonderful job

at bbsr.


Just now MP Mrs Archana Naik telephoned from Delhi and assured me of her full support for the cause at Delhi and that she will mobilise all personnel from Kendrapada residing at delhi and that there number will not be less than a thousand.She also told me that she will be coming to bbsr on 9th to interact with all of us and leave for Delhi on 12th Dec'05.

Please tell all your contact person at Delhi to keep atleast one day free for the cause of Orissa and assemble at Junter Munter at 10 am. We have to show our SWABHIMAN at Delhi.

Dr Tripathy and myself will be proceeding to Delhi early.

Odia Samaj & Agami Odisha Jindabad!

lalit mohan pattnaik

Some of the upcoming events on the NIS protest in the coming week are as follows:

1. Today there will be a meeting of intellectuals in Bhubaneswar to chart the course for the next month.

2. Monday an NDA/BJP meeting is scheduled in Delhi to discuss NIS.

3. Wedneshday Cuttack highcourt is scheduled to hear the request by the central government to lift the temporary stay order.

Click on "Bishesh Drushti" tab in the right hand side
under "video". This is not a permanent link, so it
may be gone soon.

Dear Chitta,

...

We assembled in UU in the evening under the banner Agami Orissa.
Intellectuals were informed about a bigger meeting at 3.30pm tomorrow to chalk out plan of action atleast for one more month.

The student Mashal meet was deffered to 8th instant for a better participation.

Dr tripathy went to "O" TV discussion pannel and i handed him the 45 page down loaded DPR which is to be shown in the broadcast for better understanding of TV watchers.

MP Dharmendra Pradhan has reached bbsr as promised and will also join the meeting at 3.30pm on 4th.

Many top intellectuals including Sahadev Sahu will be joining to-morrow.
Our main aim is participation of top intellectuals of Orissa and students in this movement.

MP Archana Naik has telephoned about our Dharana Programme at DELHI.

At 9.30 pm OTV has aired the "BISHES DRUSTI" programme on NIS. Dr Tripathy and Ex-VC of Sanskrit university have propagated our mission nicely.All posible anti points were clarified by them in a transparent manner. Many apeople must have seen it and i was also watching it. It will further enhance and confirm to people that what we are telling is more close to truth than what the Central Govt. has filed in HC.

Last but not the least, the 45 page DPR document must have been seen by atleast 4-5 lakhs of people in and around this twin cities. Atleast all of them, by now, knows that there are detailed document in support of our stand.

...

Yours,
Lalit Bhai

WorldOrissa provides an answer to Mr. Pranab Mukherjee.

Now that NDA, with BJP being its biggest constituent, plans to raise the issue (see http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/12/nda-will-raise-issue-of-nis-shifting.html ), and the PM etc. have not responded, following are some email addresses of BJP bigwigs at the national level and BJP MPs from Orissa, and links to BJP. This may come in handy if we need to communicate with them about our concerns and/or seek their support for our cause.

ajaitley@sansad.nic.in, ashourie@sansad.nic.in, murli@sansad.nic.in, pmahajan@sansad.nic.in, mvnaidu@sansad.nic.in, mnaqvi@sansad.nic.in, jaswant@sansad.nic.in, ysinha@sansad.nic.in, advanilk@sansad.nic.in,

akumar@sansad.nic.in, deobk@sansad.nic.in, pmajhi@sansad.nic.in, ananta@sansad.nic.in, jualoram@sansad.nic.in, sangeeta@sansad.nic.in, makswain@sansad.nic.in, surendra@sansad.nic.in,rn.pany@sansad.nic.in, pilania.g@sansad.nic.in

BJP Organization: http://www.bjp.org/organ-1.htm

BJP Office bearers: http://www.bjp.org/today/offmem.html

BJP National executives: http://www.bjp.org/Press/NE_may_3105.htm

BJP Rajyasabha MPs: http://www.bjp.org/today/Rajya_Sabha_Members.htm

BJP Loksabha MPs: http://164.100.24.208/ls/lsmember/partydetail.asp?cname=Bharatiya%20Janata%20Party

See also http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/12/orissa-should-not-ask-or-beg-to-be.html .

The comparison is based on the 45 page UGC document [1] available in the UGC website on NIS and the news that has been published on IISERs [2, 3], so far. We used the news items regarding IISERs because we do not have access to any formal document about it and unlike the previous government which had made the NIS document publicly available the current government seems to have not done so.

[1] http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/dpr_nis.pdf (NIS)

[2] http://www.rxpgnews.com/medicalnews/healthcare/india/article_2713.shtml (IISER)

[3] http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051029/asp/calcutta/story_5412063.asp (IISER)

It is important to note that NIS was in an early stage and the document hows the status in 2003. Still there exist a detailed document, on its objective, mission, strategy functioning, budget and all associated information in detail. This is open to common public.

It seems that plan for IISER was a close door research and its inception and progress was all the way kept confidential for the reasons that would be clear after reading this report.

In my opinion, the NIS and IISER are the same. To delude public, wordings are carefully changed and cosmetic changes have been made. The present government at the center was apparently sure that, there can be interrogation/ agitation by public while changing the location from BBSR to Kolkata and reducing number of institutes from four to two.

1. Inception of both are mostly due to lake of science institutes in the country, other than IISc, where no under graduate courses are offered.

NIS: [1] (section 3.2)

………..There is no exclusive institute, excepting Indian Institute of Science at Bangalore for science education. Even IISc, Bangalore offers post B.Sc. programmes. As a result, meritorious students who take science at the 10+2 level tend to opt for professional programmes, at the first-degree level…………..

IISER : [2] RxPG news
……….It may be mentioned that at present the only Science Institute in the country is the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore which is fully funded by the Ministry of Human Resource Development. This Institute does not have an under-graduate stream and it caters to only post-graduate education and research……..


2. Both have same objective

NIS: [1] executive summary page 3
…..it is proposed that a number of new science Institutes need to be set-up at different places in the country to be the Centres of Excellence in Science Education. These Institutes would be designed to occupy, in the near future, prestigious position in the global setting for science education as IITs and IIMs presently occupy for engineering and management education. These Institutes would attract the brightest science students from all over the Country……

IISER: [3] Telegraph, Kolkata, Oct 29
………..The Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, which got the final clearance of the Union cabinet on Thursday, will function as a counterpoint to the IITs and IIMs. Expected to be commissioned on a small scale next year, the institute will offer advanced, inter-disciplinary studies in science…………

3. Both mention of Interdisciplinary nature studies

NIS: [1] Mission of NIS (section 5.1)
………The Mission of these National Institutes of Sciences is to be Global Centres of Excellence for education in basic and applied sciences, research in pure and applied sciences and also cutting edge technology development in interdisciplinary areas of importance to the country………

And (section 6.1)
The proposed institutes should serve as interdisciplinary institutions for education and research in the areas

IISER: [3] Telegraph Oct 29
…Science on revival route- New centre to offer integrated, inter-disciplinary studies…

4. Integrated programme after 10+2 level is the target of both institutes

NIS: [1] section (3.3)
……. We have to catch them young for five year integrated programme with a possibility of exit after three years’…………

IISER [3] (from telegraph Oct 29)
……….After passing Class XII, students can study under an integrated programme at the proposed institute………


5. Research based education

NIS: [1] (section 8.10)
…….so that students, right from the day one, can participate in creative endevours in research laboratories and study in exciting and creative atmosphere. Creative research atmosphere is an essential part of a good educational institution as discovery itself is the greatest and the most effective form of teaching and teaching and learning are viewed as an adventure in discovery………..

…We have to catch them young for five year integrated programme with a possibility of exit after three years’…………


IISER
……..’The concept is new, as students will be exposed to research-based education from a very young age…… [3] (from telegraph Oct 29)

….to set up high caliber institutes in which science teaching and education will be totally integrated with the state-of-the-art research…[2] (from RxPg news oct 25)

6. The faculty and resource sharing with other institutes

NIS: [1] page.13 point (e)
……….to involve national research laboratories, science agencies and the
corporate sector in pure and applied science education…….

[1] Section 9.3
………The Core Faculty shall be supplemented by (a) Joint Appointees holding appointments in the nearby reputed National R & D Institutes and the Link university, (b) Visiting Faculty drawn specifically from reputed research institutions in the country and abroad (c) Adjunct faculty drawn from Industry. Ratio of core faculty to the other faculty is likely to in the ratio of 60:40……..

[1] Section 8.20
………Accordingly, the Institute shall benefit both from UGC InfoNet and the Indian Digital Library in Engineering Science and Technology (INDEST) Consortium right from its inception……….

IISER [3] (from telegraph Oct 29)
……………other significant concept of the proposed IISER is to actively forge strong relationship with the existing universities and colleges and network laboratories and institutions, in order to share and complement faculty resources as well as research, library and computational facilities…………..


7. Statistics (please follow the equation ‘4 NIS= 2 IISER’)

NIS each [1] (TABLE- 1 & 2)
Total student strength= 1000
Total faculty strength=100 (core faculty)

IISER each: [2] RxPG News 14th Nov
Total student strength= 2000
Total faculty strength=200


8. The facts which support that ‘IISER’s are grown up ‘NIS’s

Please analyse following three section

i) [3] Telegraph (Oct 29)

Calcutta became a contender after chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee mounted a campaign early this year. Backed by the Prime Minister, Bhattacharjee submitted a detailed proposal to the Centre.
“Delhi agreed to include Calcutta and in March 2005, asked the state government to prepare the groundwork for setting up the institute,” education department sources said.

In July 2005, the Planning Commission, after examining the ministry for human resource development proposal, recommended that instead of five cities, only Calcutta and Pune should house the centre.
“Buddhababu’s achievement lies in the fact that he could place Calcutta above all other locations,” said Satyasadhan Chakraborty, state higher education minister.

ii) NIS ([1] section 3.4 of 45 page document)

How MHRD lies now?

….This was approved in principle by the DST, MHRD, and the Planning Commission during the 9th Five Year Plan. However, only a token amount for preparing Detailed Project Report could be provided in the 9th plan. Realizing the importance and the urgent need for setting up such National Institutes of Sciences, this proposal has been approved as a part of the UGC’s 10th Five Year Plan. Recently, it was recommended that such Centres could be more appropriately called as National Institutes of Sciences. To work out academic, administrative and financial details, a High Powered Committee was set up by the UGC in early 2003……….

iii) NIS proposal was quite impartial and had many targets to achive, even it has a mention that in first phase four NIS will be set up (i.e. at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Chennai and Pune). There was a further plan to increase the number of Institutes in the next stage which could be at kolkata and Chandigarh…..

……….These Institutes (NISc’s) would e established at Pune, near the Pune University, at Allahabad near the Allahabad University, at Chennai near the Anna University and at Bhubaneshwar in close proximity of the Utkal University. In future, many more such institutions could be set up possibly at places such as Calcutta, Chandigarh etc. these Institutes shall be fully academically, administratively and financially autonomous and will have flexible academic programmes and supportive administrative structures……………

Please see other news:

4. http://news.webindia123.com/news/showdetails.asp?id=160519&cat=India

5. http://www.chennaionline.com/colnews/newsitem.asp?NEWSID=%7B34D80E29-0423-4C43-B3FD-E2927C9A0FDA%7D&CATEGORYNAME=Chennai

6.http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle.asp?xfile=data/subcontinent/2005/October/subcontinent_October1156.xml§ion=subcontinent&col=

7. http://www.financialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=107281

8.http://www.newindpress.com/NewsItems.asp?ID=IEH20051108110502&Topic=0&Title=Top%20Stories&Page=H

9. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1051030/asp/nation/story_5416887.asp

From the news articles about the High court case on NIS it has been reported that the court asked both the central and state government for all documents related to the NIS case. It has been reported that the central govt initially did not produce any documents and recently after a temporary stay order was granted, the central government has produced an affidavit. No mention has been made regarding the central government producing any document. Based on that, my assumption, could be wrong, is that the central govt only did an affidavit and did not produce any other documents.

My question is in Indian legal system can one just make an affidavit and not produce the documents. In the US when the court asks, boxes and even truckloads of documents are produced.

Now going back to the NIS highcourt case, is not it the court's job to figure out whether NIS was shifted or not, whether NIS = IISER or not, etc. by going through all the documents, and not by just taking the word of the affidavit produced by the central govt representative. The affidavit is basically the central government's interpretation of the facts in the document and what is being challeneged is that interpretation.

How can the court then base its decision without looking at the documents and on the affidavit only? Granted the court will look at the defendant's documents and the state government documents
which they have provided. But the defendant and the state government do not have access to all (or perhaps any of) the documents of the central government.

In the US all parties (including the government) would be forced to produce all documents including emails and files in their computer. I personally was subpeoned by a court to produce all documents, emails, files, etc. for a particular case which involved my writings on a topic.

Thus the high court should not take the word/interpretation of the central government as given in the affidavit. It should insist on the central government producing all documents, emails, notes, computer files etc., in regards to both NISs and IISERs. Only then it can reach a fair conclusion regarding whether an NIS was shifted or not and whether IISER is a new concept or just an evolution of NIS.

Today's Sambada reports that the demand for Orissa to be a special category state is rebuffed yet again.

I think Orissa should not ask for this. This will not fly with other states, and is a losing battle.

Instead Orissa should identify specific instances where it has been overlooked or deprived and ask for their mitigation. This includes a pushing for a national insititure like an NIS/IIT/IISc etc.; a central university in KBK (see http://kbkcentral.blogspot.com), one of the proposed new IITs (see http://newiits.blogspot.com), better infrastructure such as roads (Vijayawada-Ranchi highway) through the backward parts of Orissa, etc.

The current government has taken good steps towards the road, railways, ports etc. With respect to the central government they should start stressing on HRD, especially about the above mentioned 3 items.

best regards
Chitta

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec2-sambada1.jpg

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec2-sambada1.pdf

In http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200511301754.htm
it is reported that:

"The CPI(M) leaders said the BJP while referring to the gunning down of BJP MLA Krishananand Rai in Ghazipur in Uttar Pradesh yesterday, sought to give it a communal colour.

They also said the Opposition was questioning the government's decision to locate the proposed National Institute of Science in Kolkata instead of Bhubaneswar and in the process causing bad blood between neighbouring states. "

This is really funny; pointing out injustice is causing bad blood, but doing injustice such as using a subterfuge (such as changing the name from NIS to IISER and a few other things) to steal an already announced (by the HRD minister, by UGC, by the President of India) institute is not causing bad blood.

The cliam that NIS and IISER are totally different is bogus; there are some changes in them; but that is natural when an institution evolves from a concept to closer to reality, or when the person in charge (HRD M) changes. Both happened this time.

Otherwise every building, every institution, every XYZ that changes a bit in the middle can be claimed to be a new thing than the original plan. It does not happen that way. The people in charge who made the changes do not claim that they have done something new, only that they made some changes.

Thus IISER is not something new with respect to NIS.

(The following analogy may make it clear to Mr. Acharya who questioned this. Mr. Basudeb Acharya is definitely evolved from what he was at 10, at 20 and so on. But he is still Basudeb Acharya, the son of his parents. Not someone different. He will still be Basudeb Acharya if he grows -- or shaves off -- his beard, or cuts all his hair, or gets another degree, or has a spending budget 10 times more, etc. He will still be the son of his parents even if he changed his name.)

More on this at http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/11/in-response-to-cpi-m-leader-basudeb.html.

In http://iiser.blogspot.com/2005/11/president-of-india-had-announced.html,
http://du.ac.in/new_initiatives/newnis.html and
http://www.ugc.ac.in/new_initiatives/newnis.html
it is said that:

"...National Institutes of Sciences ...These institutes would be established at Allahabad near Allahabad University, at Chennai near Anna University, at Pune near Pune University and at Bhuvaneshwar near Utkal University. ... Formal announcement for setting up of these Institutes was made by HE President of India on December 28, 2003 on occasion of the concluding ceremony of the Golden Jubilee of the UGC. ..."

Does not the President's announcement mean something these days?

Forget not caring about Orissa or punishing Orissa for not voting for UPA, how low can UPA sink in its desire to appease its coalition partners so as to dare to insult the President by going back on his formal announcement, by removing Bhubaneswar (Allahabad and Chennai) and adding Kolkata?

How low can the planning commission and the cabinet sink to rubber stamp such insult?


best regards
Chitta Baral

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec1-sambada.pdf




This is a new begining in the history of Orissa politics. Our MPs are raising an issue on the floor of the parliament and demanding a responnse from the Govt. which is deaf to the thousand of letters sent by concerned citizens across the Globe. In a democratic set up, all that matters is People's Mandate. So it is the time of introspection for Oriya people to think,who can protect their intrest. We have not heard any response from Congress Mps. Are they spineless to open their mouth against their puppet leader ( Dr. Man Mohan Singh). I had high respect for Dr. Singh, but that is gone. He proved it he is just another puppet and fully remote controlled.

Now it is the time for ,our esteemed Rajya Sabha Members to raise this issue in the Upper house too.

http://www.orissasambad.com/localnews.asp?Fs=5646

Dr. Digambara Patra
Sent : Thursday, December 1, 2005 4:30 PM

To : manmohan@sansad.nic.in, presidentofindia@rb.nic.in, aicc@congress.org.in, dch@yojana.nic.in, cmo@ori.nic.in, brajabhai@rediffmail.com, prafulladas@gmail.com


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Subject : Open Letter


To
The Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh

Copy to honorable President of India,
Copy to honorable UPA chair person Ms Sonia Gandhi
Copy to honorable Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission
Copy to the honorbale CM of Orissa
Copy to the honorable MPs from Orissa
Copy to the media

Dear Honorable Prime Minister of India

Your kind attention is drawn that institutes to be named as “National Institute of Science” were earlier proposed at Allahabad, Bhubaneswar, Pune and Chennai by UGC and for the proposal the honorable Chief Minister of Orissa had promised and allotted land in Bhubaneswar to make such an institute at Bhubaneswar by UGC.

However, it was realized that the present central government has renamed or abolished those institutes and proposed new institutes as “Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research” and relocated one of them from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata. An announcement on 28th September 2005, New Delhi (Reference: http://pmindia.nic.in/speech/content.asp?id=203) has also been made that “the Government is creating two institutes dealing exclusively with science education and research, one in Pune and another in Kolkata”. Regarding national level educational institution in the state, Orissa is one of the unfortunate states in the country where neither any of Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Indian School of Mines (ISM), Indian Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) nor any Central University is located although Orissa is always scrutinized for poverty, malnutrition, backwardness and poor infrastructure despite its rich mineral resources and cultural heritage.

The institutes located in Orissa are National Institute of Technology (formerly REC) and Regional Research Laboratory both of which are regional institutes under Government of India and located in most of the states in the country. The credit for establishing Institute of Physics, Bhubaneswar goes more to the state government since the institute was initially established by the state government and was later converted as a regional laboratory under DAE, Government of India. In the year 2003 the then Prime Minister of India laid foundation for a first regional branch of AIIMS in Bhubaneswar in a mission for making six more regional branches of AIIMS in the six most backward states of India to boost their respective poor health services in those states. Thus, the proposed AIIMS regional branch at Bhubaneswar is likely because of Orissa’s present poor health services for its people, which is evident from the large number of Orissa patients visiting AIIMS, New Delhi. Many of the poor Orissa patients even find it very difficult to travel a long distance to Delhi for their medical care due to acute poverty. Keeping this in mind such a regional branch is proposed in Bhubaneswar. Incidentally, coalition political gamble present in the country now might not be making the project to move forward.

It is to be realized that when the state was never given a chance to develop equally its infrastructure in education, science and research, compared to other states by our central leadership, how the state could be able to come out from the existing social problems like poverty and backwardness? For example, Orissa has on an average only 14 km of railway track in every 1000 km much below of national average of 19 km, where as few states have on an average of 42 km railway track in every 1000km.

When communication is a serious problem how could the existing poverty and backwardness be fought with from out side world? Surprisingly being in the main page news since last 30 years the district head-quarter of highly (in)famous region Kalahandi in India for poverty and malnutrition does not have any railway link with the state capital Bhubaneswar. This is too when the state railway transports large sum of nation’s ores and minerals and East Coast Railway is one of the highest revenue earner for Indian railway.

While announcing the two institutes dealing exclusively with science, education and research, the prime minister had also released the ‘India Science Report’ prepared by Indian National Science Academy (INSA) and quoted some of the analysis pointed out in the report. One of the quotes was that “a grave regional imbalance in terms of educational institutions in different states” (Ref: http://pmindia.nic.in/speech/content.asp?id=203). This is a serious concern for every citizen of our country that despite a serious allegation by a report carried out by India’s one of the top most respective scientific organization such as INSA, the government has not considered the report seriously to act on for the proposed institutes. As such we do not have any apathy for our beloved states, Maharastra and West Bengal, as well as towards every fellow citizen living in those states. In fact, people from those states have often made us proud in their achievements in science, technology, research and many other activities as well as towards our national integration.

However, when we look at the distribution of top most national institutes in our nation, both the states have equally many number of nation’s top most institutions including IIT, IIM, Central University, AFMC, ISI and top national laboratories like IACS, TIFR, Bose Institute, NCL, INCB, BARC etc.. Despite the presence of nation’s top most research and educational institutes in those states, those states were again given importance and other backward states which urgently need such institutions for education and research were totally ignored by widening regional differences and generating insecurity feeling among the fellow citizens living in these backward regions. If it could be argued that being metro cities has the advantage, then it has to be noted that all the metro cities in India are among the most polluted, densely populated, heavy traffic and accident prone cities in the world. Therefore, keeping the growth rate, population, pollution and current economy in mind it is the right time to divert some of the new government and public sector proposals to expand secondary cities for sustaining the future growth of India. Bhubaneswar has a great potential to grow in science, technology and education which is evident from the success of many state run institutes those got later national recognition. If any decision maker thinks that direct flight connection between Bangalore and Bhubaneswar is a hurdle for his/her decision making and prefers such an institution to make in Kolkata, then it is totally wrong and against the national interest. In fact, the demand of direct flight between Bhubanswar and Bangalore is pending with the central government files. Instead of as limitations poverty and backwardness of the region are indeed making Bhubaneswar advantageous because education would only help to eradicate poverty and backwardness permanently. A higher learning center definitely boosts the moral of local people towards education, science and technology.

In a diversified society like India where people of various languages, cultures, ethics, and religions live together, the central government has greater role to play in bringing harmony and integrity among fellow citizens as well as in developing equal infrastructure and opportunity in every region of this country. Many world class institutes including Stanford University were initially located in small places having poor infrastructure and opportunity and later on these institutes have made those regions industrially advanced and rich. In a coalition government & politics, national interest could be easily buried by creating regional imbalance; however, this could put the nation in a great danger.

So, the central government and our able leaders have to do much above their coalition politics to help out those backward regions by keeping national integrity among fellow citizens and peace in the society. The rumor among Orissa people is that in independent India the first political apathy towards Orissa state in higher learning, education and technology was made by relocating India’s first Indian Institute of Technology from the then proposed site at Bhubaneswar to Kharagpur without keeping any evidence. People of Orissa have not forgotten that political ill treatment from the central leadership till today in the next generation.

In addition, many of the remote and backward regions in the country have at least a central university whereas the most remote and backward region in the country, Kalahandi, which is surrounded by other equally backward regions of the country like Balangir, Koraput and Phulbani all located in Orissa does not have any university. In fact not even a single higher learning center is present in whole Kalahandi, Balangir, Koraput (KBK region) and Phulbani region of Orissa. Keeping all these in account, I pray and hope appropriate action towards relocating the proposed Indian Institute of Science for Education and Research from Bhubaneswar to Kolkata would be taken.

Thank you very much and with best regards

Yours sincerely

Digambara Patra

R.N 702 Waseda Step 21
Totsuka-chou 1-103 Shinjuku-ku,
Tokyo 169-0071, Japan

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec1-samaja1.pdf

An earlier article by Samaja taking the CM to task.

http://www.baral.us/orissa/pdf/2005-dec1-samaja.pdf