BANGALORE, July 24: Former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda's visions of a Central University in his home district of Hassan may not materialise.Indications that the proposal may not go through, were available to the Karnataka Government and the Vice-Chancellors of three universities last week when an experts' committee visited the State.The experts, headed by Prof K L Chopra, former director of the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur, conducted a detailed study in the State on the viability of the proposal, and are said to have argued against it.The committee conducted the study as required by the Educational Consultants India Limited (EdCIL), Delhi, the agency responsible for vetting the proposal for the Union Human Resources Development Ministry.Dr Chopra who visited Hassan on July 14, and Bangalore on July 16, held extensive meetings with top education department officials and Vice-Chancellors N R Shetty (Bangalore), Venkataramaiah (Kuvempu) and G K Veeresh (University of Agricultural Sciences).While the approach paper furnished by the EdCIL has only an outline of a new Central University and does not comment on its location, the experts raised fundamental questions about the Central University at Hassan, a district headquarter, over 200 km from Bangalore.Prof Chopra, while questioning the propriety of locating a high-profile Central University at Hassan, was also against granting premier Government educational institutions to Karnataka for some time. The logic he offered was that Bangalore already had several educational institutions of international repute like the Indian Institute of Science (IISc), the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), the National Law College of India etc.
