PALAKKAD:After a lot of lobbying, the classes at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) allotted for Kerala will begin at the temporary campus set up at Ahalia educational institutions in Kozhipara near Kanjikode here on Monday.
Around 120 students drawn from the JEE advanced list from all over the country will begin their academic year at the IIT on Monday.
Kris Gopalakrishnan of Infosys, also a member of the academic advisory board of IIT Madras, the mentor institute of the Palakkad IIT, will open the classes with a lecture to the students. Union HRD Minister Smrithi Irani will interact with the students via video conferencing.
M B Rajesh MP said that the official inauguration of the IIT would be performed according to the convenience of the Minister at a later date. The temporary facility has been equipped with modern classrooms, libraries, lab, hostels, mess hall, canteen and transport facilities.
Dr Sunil Kumar, one of the directors of IIT Madras, and Prof Kurian were present and reviewed the arrangements. Rajesh, who visited the campus on Sunday, said that he had raised the proposal of starting an IIT in the district in 2009 when the UPA Government was voted to power, but the then HRD Minister Pallam Raju had informed him that the Planning Commission had disapproved of the plan.
Subsequently, when the NDA Government assumed office in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that all states which did not have an IIT would be allotted one. In the very first 2014-15 Union Budget, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley announced new IITs for five states, which included Andhra Pradesh, Goa, Chattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir and Kerala.
When contacted, Smrithi had said the IIT could begin functioning if a temporary campus could be provided, the MP said. A team from IIT-M, after visiting the Ahalia campus, found it ideal. An MOU was signed between the Ahalia management and IIT-M for the conduct of classes for three years.
Rajesh said that of the five new IITs sanctioned, Palakkad was the first to begin functioning. Classes at the Tirupathi IIT, sanctioned for Andhra Pradesh, will begin on Wednesday. The other three IITs at Chattisgarh, Goa and Jammu and Kashmir, are yet to get off the block. Land for the permanent IIT campus is being provided by the State Government, and it encompasses 500 acres, of which 366 acres are to be acquired from private hands.
