Nagpur set to lose another academy

The circular, however, comes after four decades of procrastination by the State Government in allotment of 10 hectares of land for the proposed academy in city.

Speaking to The Indian Express, D V Chahande, chairman of the Citizens Action Committee, which took the matter to the court, said the proposal for setting up of the academy at Nagpur, which will be the only of its kind in the country, was mooted as early as 1960, when survey teams of the CWC arrived here to select a suitable site. It chose a few sites, one of them at Dhaba.However, they were not allotted by the State Government, which gave various reasons including that one of the selected, that at Dhaba, came under Zudpi-Jungle.

The proposed academy is to serve the purpose of providing higher training to engineers from India and also other Asian countries in water resources and management.

However, with the procrastinating attitude adopted by the State Government, the selection of site went on to be inordinately delayed. The matter lingered with red tapism at its best.

Meanwhile, the Gujarat and the Madhya Pradesh Governments also showed interest in setting up the academy, proposing to allot as much as land needed for the project.

The matter came to the notice of the Citizens Action Committee sometime in 1992 and it took the cudgels, filing a petition with the Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court on April 28, 1992, requesting prohibition of any move to shift the academy and for the allotment of suitable land. Adv Chahande said that the Central Government then gave astatement allowing this petition.

The Nagpur bench of the Bombay High Court issued a stay order prohibiting the shifting of the academy on August 13, 1992. Adv. Chahande said that during the proceedings the government pleader representing CWC promised that the academy will not be shifted and will be set up here at the earliest.

Following this the Divisional Commissioner held several meetings for the selection of site. Finally, in 1997, the District Collector offered a land at Surabardi village on Amravati Road. The High Court directed the Collector October 13, 1997, that the Surbardi land be allotted to the CWC within three months. However, no action has been taken by the Collector in this direction until now.

In a peculiar turn to the issue, earlier this year, the Central Government went back on its word and issued a circular proposing to shift the academy to Pune, saying that the proposed site at Khadakvasla had all the needed infrastructure readily available. Adv. Chahande said the government pleaderappearing for the Water Commission has submitted recently to the High Court that the Commission is not in the want of the land for setting up of the academy and has also filed a review petition on the HC stay, saying that it is a policy decision on the part of the Central Government to shift the academy.

Agitated over the issue, the local Citizens Action Committee has filed a contempt petition against the Central and State Government officials including the District Collector. The matter is however still in limbo with the government pleaders of both Central and State Governments seeking time from the court saying that there has been no answer from the CWC officials and the Collector to the notices issued to them regarding the contempt petition.

With the matter totally caught up in legal wrangles, it is only the people of Vidarbha who will be the loser as the proposed academy, besides being a prestigious project, promises to generate a great deal of employment potential for the local people.