Under govt pressure, RGUHS shifts to Ramanagara

Bengaluru: The Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences campus moves to a temporary location — the deputy commissioner’s office in Ramanagara town, about 50km from Bengaluru. This runs contrary to the decision made at a December 2016 meeting. The U-turn comes after pressure allegedly from the state government.
Documents accessed by TOI show the 124th syndicate meeting in the first week of January made a decision to move the campus to its temporary location in phases, beginning with the engineering department.
University vice-chancellor Dr KS Ravindranath said the move would have financial implications. “We had decided against shifting in December. We had to change our stance after the government communicated to us that we must shift to the Ramanagara DC’s office,” he said.
Sources in the syndicate, a majority of whom did not oppose the decision, said the subject of shifting the campus was not part of the meeting’s agenda. “We will move from one temporary campus to another. It is not advisable since it entails expenditure, which will yield no long-term gains,” a source said.
This is what had been decided in the 123rd syndicate meeting held in December: “Shifting the campus temporarily entails unproductive expenditure. It would paralyze day-to-day functioning of the university, and adversely affect works relating to examinations, admission, affiliation, et al, and subject the students to greater hardship.”
The syndicate had arrived at this decision after a delegation led by the varsity’s registrar inspected the DC’s office in Ramanagara. “It was found that there was a sea difference between the available carpet area and the required carpet area,” the minutes of the meeting read.
The document reveals that, according to the public works department, the carpet area available at the DC’s office is 68,332 sqft, while the actual area is 81,054sqft. However, the required carpet area for the RGUHS campus is pegged at 246,000sqft.
The syndicate had further decided to send a delegation to the government, and apprise the department of medical education of the problems involved in shifting the campus to a new location. “Considering the difficulties in carrying on work pertaining to admissions and examinations, besides the financial implications, the delegation will request the government to reconsider the decision,” the syndicate decided in December.
However, the next meeting records just a short decision to first shift the engineering department. “We’ve been told the Ramanagara Legislature Act mandates that the campus be in that district,” Ravindranath said.
A former syndicate member, however, pointed out that the act only said that the campus must be in Archakarahalli in Ramanagara, where the government was planning to host the permanent campus.
Ravindranath, however, said that about 77 acres of the land required for the permanent campus was stuck in litigation, delaying the process. “We are unable to start any work there because of the litigation,” he added.
On how such an important decision could be taken without the subject being included on the ‘agenda’ of the syndicate meeting, generally circulated much prior to the meeting, Ravindranath said: “It was largely a consequence of the government’s communication. The district ministers and several senior officials personally came to the university to inform us,” he said.