Govt, BTU cross swords over allotment of land for campus

Jaipur: Established in 2017, the Bikaner Technical University (BTU) is yet to shift to its own campus following differences over the allotment of land between the varsity and the state government.
The government in 2019 allotted 31 acres of land at Jobred on the Bikaner-Jodhpur highway which the university is resisting due to its distance from the city centre.
“I have been writing to the state government that the land allotted to us is 20 kilometre from the makeshift campus running in the College of Engineering and Technology in Bikaner. It should be shifted to some other place close to the city,” said AS Vidhyarthi, VC of the BTU.
He argued that location always plays a vital role in shaping the future of the university. “The universities are not about buildings or infrastructure. It is about the quality faculty and students. A good location which relates to roads and trains encourages good teachers and students to move into the campus. Else, the impressive location would result in high attrition of faculty,” said the VC.
Sources said that the VC office has been resisting the pressure to start the construction work of the university. The local administration has also communicated to them the same and have been deciding to cancel the allotment if the university is not interested. “It is actually a waste of our valuable land. We have been urging the university to take a call on the university or cancel it so that it can be utilised by us for other purposes,” said an official placed in the local administration of Bikaner.
The university has 40 affiliated engineering colleges and six management colleges spread out in 12 districts of western Rajasthan. The university came up to shed the loan from the Rajasthan Technical University (RTU) which had over 150 engineering colleges a decade ago.
The VC has submitted a five-year vision document to the government seeking Rs 200 crore in assistance.