Internal wrangling and indecision by Bihar and Rajasthan is causing delay in finalizing the site for IITs in the two states. Andhra Pradesh has, however, already decided on Medak.
With two states still to take any decision, the HRD ministry has sought clearance of the Expenditure Finance Committee for the IITs, a necessary step before the project gets moving.
HRD sources say that in Rajasthan, competition among various political parties and powerful politicians to get the IIT in their stronghold has resulted in the delay. Earlier it was decided to have the IIT in Kota, considered to be a stronghold of chief minister Vasundhraraje Scindia but when the Central team went to Rajasthan it received strong representations in favour of Udaipur, Ajmer and Jodhpur. "The state government has to take the decision. We are awaiting clearance," a top official said. There are indications that the CM is still pushing for Kota.
In case of Bihar, the state government had finalized Bihta, on the outskirts of Patna, as the site. But when the Central team went to inspect the area, it found that the place has a waterlogging problem.
The state government was then asked to explain how it would deal with the problem. It has been more than four months but the HRD ministry is yet to hear from the Bihar government.
Source: TOI, 31/12/2007
