The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : IIT Kharagpur extension centre in State soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Nov 26, 2004

Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

IIT Kharagpur extension centre in State soon

By Aniket Alam

HYDERABAD, NOV. 25. The State Government is in advanced stages of talks with IIT Kharagpur on opening of an extension centre in the State to offer post-graduate education in engineering.

According to informed sources, the Joint Director, Technical Education, Prabhakar Rao, went to Kharagpur last week for a meeting with authorities there and an agreement was reached in principle to set up a post-graduate centre in the State.

While the State Government is keen on the centre opening and running before the commencement of the next academic year, many operational matters need to be sorted out before it finally takes off.

The Chief Minister, Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, wrote to the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, and the Union Human Resources Minister, Arjun Singh, three days ago requesting them to take an early decision on the application of the State Government for a full-fledged IIT in the State.

`No policy on IITs'

Sources said that the previous Government at the Centre had said that there was no policy regarding new IITs in the country and the request for an IIT in Andhra Pradesh would be considered only when such a policy was in place. The present Government claims that it has written to the Central Government to reconsider the earlier decision and grant an IIT to the State at the earliest. It has said that there will be no more insistence on Basar as the location for the IIT and the Government will be happy with any location in the State.

So, while the wait continues for a full-fledged IIT in the State, aspirants can at least look forward to an extension centre of India's first IIT coming up soon.

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