CUHP demands buildings in D’sala for temporary campus

Lalit Mohan

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Tribune News Service

Dharamsala, August 5

Short of space in temporary campus, the Central University Himachal Pradesh (CUHP) has demanded buildings from the state government at Dharamsala.

The CUHP authorities have written to the Principal Secretary, Education, and Deputy Commissioner Kangra, requesting building for temporary campus or the institute at Dharamsala. The university authorities have demanded the newly developed B.Ed college campus and the old buildings of the Regional Centre of Himachal Pradesh University in Government College Dharamsala should be temporarily handed over to them for starting new courses of the CUHP.

At present, the temporary campus of the CUHP in located in new building of Government College, Shahpur. While the entire academic operations are being carried out at Shahpur campus, the office of Vice Chancellor is in the Writers Home building at Dharamsala.

The CUHP has been functioning from that campus since 2010. However, the college campus is proving inadequate for the CUHP. The university is not in a position to start new courses in the institute due to shortage of space. The students also do not have proper hostels. Many of them are residing in private buildings around the university in Shahpur. Some have been housed in hostels rented out by the university in Dharamsala or Kangra.

VC of the CUHP Kuldeep Agnihotri, when contacted, said the university had written to the state government to hand over the building in Dharamsala so that the university could start its new academic programs. He said that in case the state government fails to provide them the said building the university would have to look for alternatives.

Minister for Urban Development and Congress MLA from Dharamsala Sudhir Sharma said the state government would try to provide the buildings to the CUHP for starting its courses here.

Since it took over, the present Congress government has been trying to house the CUHP campus at Dharamsala. However, since no land was available near Dharamsala the state government has proposed land in Jadrangal, about 15 km from Dharamsala, for the CUHP campus.

However, the Union HRD Ministry is yet to send a committee to inspect the land proposed by the state government at Jadrangal.

The BJP leaders, including Anurag Thakur the party MP from Hamirpur, have been lobbying hard to ensure that at least 70 per cent campus of the CUHP should come up at Dehra.

The sources here said the fact that CUHP had demanded building at Dharamsala for its temporary campus illustrates that most of teachers of the institutes are in favour of residing at the district headquarters. Many teachers have left the institute citing lack of amenities at Shahpur. The university is also finding it difficult to attract senior faculty at the level of associate professors and professors due to the remote location of the institute.