Despite the passage of over six years when the foundation of Maulana Azad National Urdu University (MANUU) was laid in Budgam district, the authorities have failed to complete the construction of the permanent campus of the University.The land for construction of the University campus was identified in 2013. An official told the wire service–KNO that the authorities have failed to start the execution of projects for unknown reasons.Another official attributed the delay to some tussle between the government and land owners in the district. “The land owners demand a passage from the land which has been demarcated for construction of the campus. The administration has failed to resolve the issue which has delayed the construction of the campus,” an official told KNO.The official told KNO that the executing agency is yet to start the construction except a guard room at the construction site while as construction of boundary walls at the construction is incomplete for past many years.“If the district administration will take active role in it, the construction will be started within a week’s time.
Unfortunately, the authorities don’t pay any heed to the grave issue,” the official said.The foundation stone of MANUU satellite campus was laid in May 2013 by the then Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and then Union Minister for Human Resource Development (MHRD), M M Pallam Raju.“Given the delay in execution of project, MHRD didn’t release funds during 2014 and 2015. The first installment was released in 2016 but the construction work is yet to start,” the official said.The project cost of the campus is over Rs 30 Crore but the executing agency is facing hiccups in execution of work which is likely to result in the cost escalation of the project. “The project cost was fixed as per the market rate in 2013 but now six years after, the market rates have immensely increased which will obviously affect this project as well,” an official said.An official in district administration Budgam said that the project was lingering for past several years due to the dispute with the some land owners and the MANUU authorities.“The administration has convened several meetings but there has been no breakthrough in it. The matter will be referred to divisional administration and we are hopeful the issue will get resolved,” the official said. (KNO)