Rush on Darjeeling university

KINSUK BASU, TT, Calcutta: The Bengal government wants to start academic activities at Darjeeling Hills University from the next academic session, two months after chief minister Mamata Banerjee laid the foundation stone.

The plan is to temporarily use the infrastructure of an upcoming engineering college in Takdah, 27km from Darjeeling town and situated at an altitude of 5,100ft, which the central government-run National Hydroelectric Power Corpo- ration (NHPC) is funding under its corporate social responsibility scheme.

Darjeeling Hills University will come up at Mongpoo in Darjeeling, where the chief minister laid the foundation stone on Teachers' Day (September 5). The government plans to start academic activities in July next year for the 2019-20 session.

"The higher education department has decided to assess the infrastructure at the newly constructed engineering college so that the university can start functioning from here for now. A four- The engineering college in Takdah member committee has been set up to assess whether the state government can start preliminary operations of the university," a source said. Sources in the higher ed- ucation department said the state government was keen to launch the university at the earliest to showcase the development work it had done for the Darjeeling hills, which has not elected a Trinamul MP so far. The Lok Sabha elections are scheduled for 2019.

Hill residents have been demanding a university since 1955, when the Darjeeling municipality adopted a resolution and placed it before the state government. When the Gorkhaland Terri- torial Administration memorandum of agreement was signed in 2011, there was a mention of a central university for the region.

While laying the foundation stone of Darjeeling Hills University, Mamata had underlined how her government was committed to meet the demands and aspirations of the people of the hills.

"The higher education department has set a deadline of December 31 within which the four-member committee would have to submit its report. There is an urgency," said a source.