Bhubaneswar, July 25 (Inditop.com) The Orissa government Saturday re-introduced a controversial bill proposing a Rs.150-billion (43.75 billion) university in the state to be promoted by NRI billionaire and chairman of Britain’s Vedanta Resources Anil Agarwal.
The Vedanta University Bill was introduced last year but fell through after stiff resistance from the opposition.
As Higher Education Minister Debi Prasad Mishra introduced the bill, the opposition members criticised the state government for allegedly showing undue favour to the Agarwal-backed foundation.
The foundation proposes to set up a multi-disciplinary Vedanta University spread over 6,000 acres near the Konark-Puri marine drive, some 56 km from here, catering to 100,000 students.
“Although the foundation wanted 10,000 acres of land, the government reduced it to 6,000 acres. The state government has already acquired 4,000 acres of land despite local opposition,” the minister said.
But Opposition Chief Whip Prasad Harichandan said: “The organisation which has proposed to set up the university has never run any educational institution in the past. How can the government hand over such a large chunk of land to it?”
The bill is to be put to vote in the assembly Tuesday.
