HP agri varsity staff to CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu: Withdraw state govt's plea against HC stay on land transfer

Time of India

2 days ago

Kullu: The teachers' association of Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur, has urged chief minister
Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu
to withdraw a special leave petition (SLP) which the state govt recently filed in the Supreme Court.
The petition challenges a stay order by the Himachal Pradesh high court on the transfer of 112 hectares of university land to the tourism department.
In a letter to the CM, the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University Teachers' Association (HPAUTA), which has been opposing the land transfer for a proposed tourism village, said this state govt project would jeopardise agricultural education and research in a premium agricultural university.
According to the association, govt should withdraw the SLP so that the university's academic, research, and extension work was not affected adversely.
Prof Janardan Singh, the secretary of HPAUTA, told TOI that the university land was meant solely for academic and research purposes, not commercial. "The land transfer would not only halt major ongoing research projects, including those funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), but also hinder the university's future expansion as no land would be left for new colleges, departments, or student facilities.
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The proposed village would weaken the academic mission of the university," said Prof Singh.
He said state govt's move to approach the SC also raised several questions about its intent. "Why is the govt in such a hurry to establish a tourism village on the university campus when several hectares of land under various departments of the Himachal Pradesh govt lie unused? The state govt is unnecessarily putting the future of a premium institute of learning at risk," added Prof Singh.
Despite protests and stiff opposition from teachers and students, the state govt last year transferred 112 hectares of university land to the tourism department for developing a tourism village. Challenging the state govt's land transfer, HPAUTA approached the Himachal Pradesh high court, which put a stay on the land transfer in August last year. Challenging the stay, state govt filed an SLP in the SC in March this year.
Established in 1978, Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University, Palampur, in Kangra district was renamed Chaudhary Sarvan Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University in 2001. The university was awarded 14th rank among the Indian agriculture universities by ICAR in 2019. So far, the university has released 179 improved varieties of different crops for different regions of the state and is the first in the country to establish an advanced centre on nature farming.
There are four constituent colleges of the university which impart education to over 2000 students from eight countries and 15 Indian states. If the transfer of the 112 hectares goes through, the university will be left with 277 hectares of land in its Palampur campus. According to teachers, the university will require more land for expansion in near future. "The university land has been squeezed whereas it needs to be expanded and new programmes are required to be started as per the new education policy.
There is an urgent need to establish new colleges including the college of agricultural engineering, fisheries, agricultural business management, environmental sciences and more. Instead of providing more land to the university, the state govt is taking away whatever little it has got," said a university teacher, who didn't want to be named.
The state govt announced in Nov 2023 to set up a tourism village in Kangra district to promote "local art and culture and to create employment opportunities for the youth".