Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University students, staff take to streets

Palampur, August 30

Hundreds of students, non-teaching staff and retired employees of HP Agriculture University today took out a procession here in protest against the state government’s decision to transfer 112 hectares of university land to the Tourism Department.

The protesters alleged that the government would later transfer this land to a private party.

The associations teaching and non-teaching employees, besides students bodies are on warpath against the government’s move. Just before his retirement, the then acting Vice-Chancellor Dr DK Vatsa had given no-objection certificate (NOC) to the state government in July for transferring the university land for setting a tourism village on the campus. The protesters had asked the VC to withdraw the NOC as he was serving as acting VC.

They argued that the university land should not go into the hands of big corporates who were allegedly hand-in-glove with the state authorities.

The protesters also submitted a memorandum to the Palampur SDM for the Governor and Chief Minister.

Later, addressing the media on the university campus, HP Agriculture University Non-Teaching Employees Association president Rajiv Sharma said the employees would take the issue to a logical end and force the state government withdraw the decision.

He said the university land should be used for educational purposes only. He maintained that the university was left with limited land as land use could not be changed for tea gardens. Therefore, the Chief Minister should review the decision and restore the land to the university, he added.

He said the associations would also move court against the decision of the state government. “A tourism village in the agriculture university will also affect academic atmosphere. Our associations have already requested Governor Shiv Partap Shukla, who is Chancellor of the university, to not allow setting up of the tourism village on the university land,” he added.

He said if the existing area of the agriculture university was reduced, the chances of opening a Central Agricultural University for Agriculture for the northwestern Himalayas would also diminish.