JNU administration once again expresses desire to open satellite campus

The Jawaharlal Nehru University administration Monday said the idea of opening a satellite campus of the varsity is "still there", a week after the HRD ministry informed Parliament that there is no such plan. In response to a question, Union Minister of State for HRD Satyapal Singh had on December 31 told the Lok Sabha, "There is no plan for the opening of a satellite campus or branches by JNU, IITs or IIMs." "As a policy, the government does not encourage the establishment of satellite campuses of such educational institutions," he had said.

However, Chintamani Mahapatra, Rector-I, JNU, said they have not written to the HRD Ministry about it. "We have not written to the HRD Ministry about the satellite campus. If the varsity somehow thinks about the possibility or the need for a satellite campus, we do not need money from the government if we can do on our own by raising funds in different ways.

"The reason why the ministry says like this is we have not applied for funds. What he meant was that it has not come for us. This was an idea and the idea is still there and we need to see what steps can be taken," he said. JNU Vice-Chancellor Jagadesh Kumar had in last October announced that the university was planning to set up a satellite campus outside the national capital region (NCR) with an aim to make the university accessible to more students.

(With inputs from agencies.)