PANJIM: Setting up the first IIT in Goa could face a setback as the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government has reduced funding for the elite institutions, as well as for funding for higher secondary education across the country, ahead of presenting the Union Budget next month.
In the revised budget estimates for the fiscal year 2014-15, the government has decided to cut funds for the five new IITs and five IIMs from Rs 500 crore to Rs 65 crore.
In the Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had announced the setting up five IITs in Jammu, Chhattisgarh, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, in addition to the existing ones. Along with this, new IIMs were also proposed, with the Centre assuring these institutes that it would become operational from 2015. “I propose to set aside a sum of Rs 500 crore for this,” Jaitley had said in his budget speech.
Secretariat sources said details were already being worked out on the possible number of students’ intake and the streams in which these will be operational from this year. The state government was also in the midst of locating a non-controversial plot of land to start the campus.
Another reduction is the drop to Rs 3,900 crore from the originally allocated Rs 16,900 crore for higher secondary education. In yet another reduction, the Centre reduced the original funding of Rs 2,500 crore to the 16 IITs to Rs 2,337 crore.
The announcement comes three days after the Centre had relaxed land requirements for upcoming central educational institutions covering all proposed IITs, IIMs and central universities, realizing that states are facing acute shortage of urban land. According to prevailing norms, a state government must spare 100 acres for an IIT, 200 acres for an IIM or IISER, 300 acres for an NIT and 500 acres for an IIT and a central university.
