Besides industrialisation, the land acquisition process has also hit students willing to pursue higher education in the state.

 

State higher education director Anjani Kumar Srivastava said that though the groundwork was cleared for an IIM, which is about to come up in Ranchi, and the National Law University, which would come up at Mesra, the proposed central university is facing land acquisition problems.

 

Srivastava was here to attend the governing body meeting of Jamshedpur Women's College. This was the first meeting of its governing body after the college was granted autonomy by the UGC.

 

"The IIM and the National Law University are at their final stages but the problem is with the central university, as the land required for it is not available yet. Though we want it to come up in or around the steel city, there is hardly any land available here. We had written to the National Institute of Technology but did not get any concrete response. We are trying hard as we do not want students to go to other states," said Srivastava.

 

Other options — apart from Jamshedpur — are Khunti or Ghatshila. About 700-1000 acres of land is required for the university.

 

He said the state government would prefer to use its existing land to avoid any controversy.

 

The Khunti site was also inspected a couple of days ago, he added.

 

Telegraph June 14 , 2009