Rush to start hill varsity

VIVEK CHHETRI, TT, 21 Dec 2018, Darjeeling: A four-member team of the higher education department on Thursday inspected a newly constructed engineering college in Takdah to see whether the proposed Darjeeling Hill University (DHU) can function from the campus.

The state government had recently announced setting up of DHU at Mungpoo. Even though construction work at Mungpoo, about 35km from Darjeeling, is expected to take time, efforts are being made by the state government to make the university functional from a temporary site as early as possible, possibly from the 2019-20 session.

Subha Sankar Sarkar, vice-chancellor of the Netaji Subash Open University, is the chairman of the inspection team while other members include Amalendu Basu director of technical education, Prabal Deb, principal, Cooch Behar Government Engineering College and Pranabesh Das, additional director of technical education.

Sarkar said: "We found a four-storied building spread over 16 acres of land. Internal electrical wirings have been completed. The demand for a university in the hills was first raised in 1955 with Darjeeling municipality adopting a resolution. The North Bengal University was set up in 1962 and even though it came up in Darjeeling district, it was located near Siliguri. The demand for a university in Darjeeling has been made from time to time because the hills have an academic calendar different from the one in the plains.