Govt steps in as HCU land deal gets murkier

MRIDULA CHUNDURI / TNN / Nov 2, 2006, 02:18 IST

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The University of Hyderabad's clandestine move to 'earmark' 200 acres for Care Foundation is snowballing into a major controversy.

Govt steps in as HCU land deal gets murkier

HYDERABAD: The University of Hyderabad's clandestine move to 'earmark' 200 acres for Care Foundation is snowballing into a major controversy with even government officials stepping in to verify the facts of the case.
HCU was given conditional allotment of land by the state government in 1974 and so it cannot 'earmark', 'allot' or 'alienate' any piece of land to any body without first surrendering the land to the state government which would in turn do the earmarking and allotment, said a senior revenue department official.
But the affair of earmarking property worth nearly Rs 3,000 crore for the 200 acres on the campus at Gachibowli was so secretive that neither the Ranga Reddy collectorate nor the revenue department got wind of it.
And now both the bodies, having learnt about the deal from media reports, are gathering information about the deal.

"If the earmarking of this land is for purposes other than those mentioned at the time of original land allotment to the university, then action can be initiated against the university,"said Ranga Reddy district joint-collector V Seshadri.
And while the entire university is against the deal and lamenting over how the university executive council (EC) approved of it, sources say the EC was not exactly happy with the deal either.

It is learnt that the university finance officer outrightly rejected the proposal to give land to Care Foundation. Senior EC members like Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, vice-chancellor B B Bhattacharya also expressed concern over giving away land to an organisation with corporate tie-ups like Care Hospital.
Despite the dissent, university vice-chancellor Seyed E Hasnain managed to get the proposal cleared in principle. After this, an MoU was signed with the Care Foundation in June this year.
However, this MoU was not on the agenda nor even mentioned in the subsequent EC meeting held earlier this week. This even as the JAC of university students, teaching and non-teaching staff raised queries against the deal.
On Tuesday, the university's court meeting saw several senior faculty members raising questions on what good would be coming up of a corporate hospital to the university.
An 'emotional' vice-chancellor, while defending the deal, is said to have offered to withdraw the MoU if the university community was against it. The JAC is against the land going to Care Foundation, which is linked with Care Hospitals who they consider has a "dubious past".
The common link between the university and the Care Foundation seems to be none other than President A P J Abdul Kalam. He is the chancellor of the central university and also a known patron of Care Foundation.
He even gave Rs 1,00,000 for Little Hearts, a project supported by Care Foundation. Meanwhile, Dr B Soma Raju, patron of Care Foundation, told TOI on Wednesday that the land would remain with the university and Care Foundation had nothing to do with it.
"The university and the foundation together formed the Society for Health Research and Translation Studies that will come up with a facility having infrastructure required to offer the physician scientist programme proposed by the department of science and technology,"he said.
The DST had asked universities to forge tie-up with institutions to start this novel concept where research in health sciences would move beyond medicine.
Doctors with interest in pure sciences and technology would be offered courses to study 'the science of man', he said. Expertise from all related fields, including scientists from all over the country and abroad, would be roped in.

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