Nishikant Khajuria
JAMMU, June 25: Decks have been cleared for acquisition of the land, identified for setting up Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jammu, near Khanpur Jagti as the Union Ministry for Environment is learnt to have signaled a go ahead on the project.
The green signal was given by the Union Minister for Environment, Prakash Javadekar during his meeting with J&K Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh, who called on the former at New Delhi today and discussed status of the land, a portion of which falls within 10 kms from the boundary of Nandni Wildlife Sanctuary, official sources informed the Excelsior.
To ensure speedy work on the project, sources added, a time frame of three-months has also been set for clearance of all the issues, concerning land acquisition, under the jurisdiction of Union Ministry of Forest and Environment.
Pertinent to mention that more than 3400 kanal land has been almost identified near Khanpur Jagti for setting up IIT Campus after a Central team, comprising Joint Secretary in Technical Education Department, HRD Ministry; Director IIT Delhi and a Technical Expert from the Delhi University recently visited the site and found it appropriate. However, around 1500 kanal area out of this identified land, falls within 10 kms of the boundaries of Nandni Wildlife Sanctuary and as per the Wildlife Conservation Strategy-2002, the said area needs to be notified as Eco-Sensitive Zone to provide better sanctity to protected areas and check the adverse impact of unplanned development in and around.
To avoid hurdles on account of environmental clearance, Deputy Chief Minister Dr Nirmal Singh along with a high level team of officers of Wildlife and Forest Department, met the Union Minister for Environment Prakash Javadekar at New Delhi today and apprised him of the issue besides requesting for a provisional No Objection Certificate (NOC) by the Ministry.
According to the sources, the Union Minister told the DyCM that no provisional NOC was required for the land acquisition as the Educational institutions are exempted from such bindings with respect to environmental clearance. Further, the area falling within 10 kms of the boundaries of Nandni Wildlife Sanctuary, has not yet been notified as Eco-Sensitive Zone and therefore no complexity was involved for clearance to land acquisition, sources added while quoting the Union Minister.
As far as clearance from Forest Department is concerned, sources further said, the State is required to provide alternate land in lieu of forest area and the Government will arrange the same in parts across Jammu region.
While elaborating, sources added that in lieu of 1500 kanal Forest land, the Government has planned to provide patches of State land in different districts of this region to the Forest Department.
When contacted, Dr Nirmal Singh confirmed that the Union Minister has assured all possible support for expediting work on the proposed campus and also set a time frame of three- months for clearance to all Environment and Forest related issues. “Funding is no issue and as soon as land acquisition process is completed, construction work will begin so that the IIT may be shifted to the permanent and own campus as early as possible,” he added.
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