TUMKUR: Tumkur University has identified a plot measuring 500 acres at Gulur, 5 km south of Tumkur, for its campus. It is located on Tumkur-Kunigal Road.

The university officials, who along with the Revenue Department officials inspected the plot, said they would impress upon the Government that this plot was better suited than the one at Gollahalli, near Mallasandra, on National Highway 206.

The Government had provided the university 300 acres in the Devarayana Durga Reserve Forest.

The allotment was withdrawn following a ruling by the Supreme Court that forestland could not be used for other purposes. While a 225-acre plot had been taken back, the university was yet to surrender the remaining 75 acres.

It is in this background that the Government decided to buy land and provide it to the university. Minister for Higher Education D.H. Shankara Murthy announced this during his visit to Madhugiri in the district recently.

Mr. Murthy said the Government was duty-bound to provide land and water to the university in Tumkur. The Government could not go against the apex court order (barring use of forestland for other purposes). "We have decided to acquire private land at market rate for the university."

Two more proposals — a plot at Mallasandra and another at Nandialli on the eastern part of Tumkur — are likely to be rejected, according to sources in Tumkur University.

The sources said the Gulur plot was convenient.

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