‘Unsafe’ NIT Uttarakhand: Institute finds interim campus in Rishikesh

On October 4, the NITUK students had gone on an indefinite strike demanding that the institute’s temporary campus, located along the accident-prone National Highway-58, be shifted to a safer location, and the subsequent allotment of land for a permanent and safe campus. The protests came a day after a third year student of B Tech, Neelam Meena (20), sustained critical injuries after being hit by a car on the national highway.

The students had left the campus for home on October 23 after their demands were not met. They claimed that they would not return to the Srinagar Garhwal campus until their demands were met. Following the “walkout”, the institute authorities had sent the students a series of letters and emails, asking them to return or suffer “academic loss”.

One such email sent to students, which was accessed by The Indian Express, said, “The matter of shifting temporary campus to IDPL Rishikesh is almost resolved. We will get it just after 20th November.”

The email, which mentioned the involvement of the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) in getting the new location in Rishikesh, said that NITUK campus could be shifted to IDPL “within two-three months time as it will take some time to renovate the buildings”.

The institute has 980 students – 866 engineering students, 90 M Tech, and 24 PhD scholars. Barring 37, all other students have left the campus.

NITUK assistant registrar Jagdeep Singh had told The Indian Express that “a five-six member committee had visited Rishikesh on November 5 to search for places where the institute campus could be shifted temporarily”. Singh, however, did not reveal information about IDPL, Rishikesh.

Meanwhile, the Uttarakhand government is planning to allot land for a permanent campus of NITUK at two places – one at Sumari village, about 15 km from the current Srinagar campus, and the other at Jaletha village. The two places are about 3.5 km apart.