UAS panel meet to decide on land transfer

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE, SEPT. 27. The Vice-Chancellor of the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, Prof. Krishnappa, said on Thursday that a meeting of the Board of Regents would be convened soon to take a decision on handing over 100 acres of land to the Government, as demanded by it, for setting up biotechnology and information technology parks.

Addressing presspersons here, he said the Government had asked the university to hand over land near the Judges' Colony. The board, at an emergency meeting on September 13, had turned down the Government's request. It was decided to allot land on Yeshwanthpur-Yelahanka Road which, however, was not acceptable to the Government, he added.

Prof. Krishnappa said that as a fallout, the Agriculture Secretary informed him that a show-cause notice would be issued to the university for not considering the Government's request. The Secretary also requested him to convene another meeting of the board immediately, so that it could reconsider its earlier decision, Prof. Krishnappa said.

``However, I have not received any notice from the Secretary so far. Once the notice is received, a meeting of the board will be convened,'' he said.

Prof. Krishnappa categorically said that the Government was ``supreme'' and, legally, it was entitled to acquire any land owned by the university.

He said that in the last few days, the Minister of State for Information Technology, Prof. B.K. Chandrashekar, and the Principal Secretary to the Chief Minister, Mr. Ranganath, had contacted him and sought arrangements for handing over land to the Government.

Despite being told by the university not to take up any activity on its campus until the Board of Regents held another emergency meeting and took a decision, the officials of the Information Technology Department and Land Army personnel started felling trees on Thursday morning.

Prohibitory orders were imposed to enable the Land Army to clear the area of vegetation, Prof. Krishnappa said.

`Parks will be established'

In a related development, the Agriculture Minister, Mr. T.B. Jayachandra, announced that there was no going back on setting up biotechnology and information technology parks.

At a press conference here, he said that the Government had not yet decided on a partner for the venture. (The minister's statement was in the wake of rumours that Biocon has been entrusted with the task of setting up a biotechnology park.)

Mr. Jayachandra said the university students would greatly benefit by the proposed technology parks.

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