Demand for Central University at Alipurduar

 

COOCH BEHAR, July 24: Eminent citizens and different organisations are trying to woo the government to establish the proposed Central University at Alipurduar. State chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee recently declared that the proposed university may come up in Jalpaiguri district but he is yet to mention the actual site for it. His utterance inspired many to demand the university at Alipurduar.

 

Though the CPI-M is still to clarify its stand, its ally in the Left Front – Revolutionary Socialist Party – already started a movement over the issue. All the frontal organisations of RSP are demanding setting up of the proposed university at Alipurduar.

 

Alipurduar MLA Mr Nirmal Das, who is also a senior leader of the RSP, said Alipurduar is a backward zone in north Bengal and so the proposed university should be established here for the benefit of numerous students of Dooars and adjacent areas to provide them with the opportunity of higher education.

 

Mr Das argued that North Bengal University is the lone university for the 1.80-crore people of six districts of north Bengal. Dooars is a region where people of fifty-four linguistic varieties reside. Alipurduar is situated at the heart of Dooars and so the proposed Central University should be launched here, he opined.

 

On behalf of All India Progressive Students' Union, Mr Ramkumar Lama said the North Bengal University is at a distance of 50-kilometre only from Jalpaiguri town. Another university should not be come up on its vicinity. Alipurduar is the ideal place for the proposed university, he opined. Not only the students of Dooars but also the students of neighbouring areas will be benefited if the university comes up at Alipurduar, he maintained.

 

Alipurduar MLA Mr Das appealed to the chief minister to declare Alipurduar as the site of the new Central University as early as possible to wind up all speculations and controversies fuming over it. []