The 90-year-old Andhra University has sailed through many a rough weather in the past, but this time it is facing a threat directly from the government.
The government is mulling to take over some of its lands, and for the first time the university appears to be in a vulnerable spot.
The government recently moved in to acquire whole or a major chunk of 100 acres of land of the university in Vizianagaram district. The land was allotted to the university some time in 2004 to set up a post graduate (PG) centre, and based on that AU has started a PG centre that offers about five PG programmes such as M. Com. MEd and MBA.
The centre caters to the rural students from villages and mandals from Vizianagaram to Srikakulam, and has a student strength of 500. Though the government’s move has been temporarily thwarted, with the timely intervention of senior officials from the university, including Vice-Chancellor G. Nageswara Rao, the threat persists.
“The District Collector and the RDO was kind enough to understand our problems, but we have to immediately develop the campus, which includes the construction of a boundary wall,”said Prof. Nageswara Rao.
To begin with, the university plans to build at least two hostel blocks, including one for girls. “There are about 100 girls studying on the campus and a few come from far flung areas,” the vice-chancellor told The Hindu .
But that is not going to be easy for the cash-strapped university.
According to sources, development of the campus would require at least ₹ 20 crore, and to mobilise such an amount is a Herculean task of the oldest university in the State.
Other lands
Apart from the campus at Visakhapatnam, AU has about three campuses spread across coastal Andhra.
It has a PG centre spread over 100 acres in Vizianagaram, another centre at Kakinada on a 200-acre piece of land and another 100-acre campus at Tadepalligudem.
Of them, the centre at Kakinada is the oldest and the biggest that has over 1,000 students pursuing eight PG courses.
Sources in the university feel that all the campuses are now under threat of acquisition by the government.
“In Visakhapatnam, we started with a 1,000 acre campus and that is now already reduced to about 700 acres (conservative estimate). Some land has been encroached and some are already taken over by the government,” said a senior professor who also served as Registrar of the university.
Recently there was a talk that a part of AU’s prime land on Beach Road would be taken away by the government to lease it out to IT companies to build IT towers, but after stiff resistance from people, it was prevented.
Real estate
Sources say the government is trying to take away the land in Vizianagaram to offer it to a private player.
“A number of MoUs were signed during the recent CII Partnership Summit, and the government has promised land for all. To facilitate this, the government is trying to take away our land. Instead of supporting the oldest public university in the State, it is keen on lowering its status. The private players are only keen on taking over the land for real estate value, and so far, after two successive Partnership Summits, the conversion of land in the shape of projects, institutions, earnings and jobs is minimal,” said another senior professor.
