In a letter to the state chief minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, the Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University Teachers’ Association (HPAUTA) has urged the CM to withdraw a special leave petition (SLP) that the state government recently filed in the Supreme Court.
The petition challenges a stay order by the Himachal Pradesh high court on the transfer of 112 hectares of university land to the tourism department for a proposed tourism village.
The teachers’ association of the university in Palampur has been opposing the land transfer, saying the government project would jeopardise agricultural education and research in a premium agricultural university. According to the association, the government should withdraw the SLP so that the university’s academic, research, and extension work was not affected adversely.
Prof Janardan Singh, the secretary of HPAUTA, emphasised that the university land was meant solely for academic and research purposes, not commercial. “The land transfer would not only halt major ongoing research projects, including those funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), but also hinder the university’s future expansion as no land would be left for new colleges, departments, or student facilities. The proposed village would weaken the academic mission of the university,” said Prof Singh.
He said state government’s hurried move to approach the SC also raised several questions about its intent.
“Why is the government in such a hurry to establish a tourism village on the university campus when several hectares of land under various departments of the Himachal Pradesh government lie unused? The state government is unnecessarily putting the future of a premium institute of learning at risk,” the professor said.
Despite protests and firm opposition from teachers and students, the state government transferred 112 hectares of university land to the tourism department for developing a tourism village last year.
This prompted HPAUTA to approach the Himachal Pradesh high court to challenge the land transfer, following which the court put a stay on the land transfer in August last year. Sukhu’s government then filed an SLP in the Supreme Court in March this year, challenging the stay.
The Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University in Kangra’s district’s Palampur was established in 1978. It was renamed Chaudhary Sarvan Himachal Pradesh Agriculture University in 2001. Ranked 14th among the Indian agriculture universities by ICAR in 2019, the university has released 179 improved varieties of different crops for different regions of the state so far and is the first in the country to establish an advanced centre on nature farming.
There are four constituent colleges of the university which impart education to over 2000 students from eight countries and 15 Indian states. If the transfer of the 112 hectares goes through, the university will be left with 277 hectares of land in its Palampur campus.
“The university land has been squeezed whereas it needs to be expanded and new programmes are required to be started as per the new education policy. There is an urgent need to establish new colleges including the college of agricultural engineering, fisheries, agricultural business management, environmental sciences and more. Instead of providing more land to the university, the state government is taking away whatever little it has got,” a university teacher was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity.
The state government had announced in November 2023 to set up a tourism village in Kangra district to promote “local art and culture and to create employment opportunities for the youth”.
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