BENGALURU: Preparations are underway to give Dr. B. R. Ambedkar School of Economics University, Bengaluru (BASE University), a grand look as Prime Minister Narendra Modi may visit to inaugurate the building on December 6. It's not just the exterior that needs sprucing up but the interior infrastructure was also found lacking.
Funds are pending for the interiors of the building which look incomplete at present, said official sources. Discussions are on to take the help of the horticulture department campus to gentrify the campus.
Veeranna Somanna, Minister of Housing and Infrastructure Development department of Karnataka, who visited the campus on Tuesday evening with Minister of Higher Education Ashwath Narayana, met with university and higher education department officials to discuss the preparations. Both ministers believed a lot needed to be done for the institute to look better.
The building has already been established for two years and about Rs 150 crore has been released to BASE for civil works. Infrastructure including the faculty quarters is yet to be completed and remains a challenge for the institute that claims to be modelled on the lines of the London School of Economics.
Somanna pulled up the contractor for shabby work at the campus and asked for work to start 24/7, so that a visible change is seen in three to four days -- in eight days, it should look like a miracle has taken place, he instructed.
The university is at the moment running at the capacity of 240 students, as per the vice chancellor who spoke at the meeting with department officials, and just 50 students are on campus.
Ashwath Narayana sought to know from university officials what needs to be done from the government side for the renovation as well as landscape expenditure. Emergency funds are planned to be used for it.
"Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai had asked me and V Somanna, Minister for Housing, to take stock of the preparations. Accordingly, today’s meeting was held to review the preparations,” Narayana said.
The building is scheduled to be inaugurated four years after the academic sessions of BASE were inaugurated at Dr. B. R. Ambedkar Bhavan by former Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh on October 4, 2017.
As per the vice chancellor of Bangalore University, classes were running in Bangalore University campus till students were shifted out in 2019 to the new campus.
As per the university portal, the first batch of B.Sc. (Honours) Economics was admitted in June-July 2017, through an All India Entrance test conducted by Karnataka Examination Authority (KEA), and the classes for this pioneer batch began from 28 August 2017, at the Department of Visual Arts, Bangalore University, Jnana Bharathi campus, Bengaluru. At present, the university has 10 permanent faculty and a few other guest faculty, which is likely to grow as they expect the intake of students to be increased in the coming years.