No headway in proposed second campus of RD Women’s University

BHUBANESWAR: The issue of finalising a suitable land for second campus of the Rama Devi Women’s University had created hue and cry last year. Coming under pressure, the state government had selected a land at Gothapatna in Khurda district for the purpose. But nothing has been done so far except selection of the location.
The state government had created Rama Devi Women's University at Bhubaneswar, Gangadhar Meher University at Sambalpur and Khallikote Cluster University at Berhampur on May 30, 2015. “The last two universities have already received land much earlier, but the government is yet to give any official communication to the state’s first women university about finalisation of the land,” said a senior teacher of the university.
The government had selected two lands on outskirts of the city, but the university had opposed the selection due to its remote location. On January 30 last year, the higher education department had issued a notification to identify a 30-acre land inside Utkal University for the second campus of the RD University. But students had opposed the government notification and vehemently protested it.
Later, the government had dropped the idea to take Utkal land and formed an extended committee on February 19 last year to identify land for the RD University. The committee had submitted its report on March 15 last year regarding the land for the second campus. It has proposed for a land at Gothapatna, but no progress on the issue after that.
“The land at Gothapatna has 78 acres, but there is no clarity about how many acres have been allotted for the university. It will take another round of discussion before handing it over to the institution,” said a senior higher education department official.
Padmaja Mishra, vice chancellor of the university, said she did not get any official communication regarding the allotment of the land for the second campus. “After getting land, we will make plan for construction,” she added.
The present campus is spread over 22 acres of land near Rupali Square. As it is an affiliating university and 48 women's colleges under its jurisdiction, it gets immense load of the colleges along with PG and M Phil programmes.
“We have not started our PhD programmes due to lack of infrastructure. We don’t have land to set up good laboratories and research centres to start doctoral programmes. Space is needed for starting new departments like Business Administration and Journalism,” said a senior teacher.
The university cannot host inter-college or inter-university sports meet due to lack of a good playground and a sports complex. “Besides, we need staff quarters and guest house inside the campus like other universities,” said the teacher.