Neighbour to house Presi second campus

Presidency University, suffering from a space crunch, is set to get its second campus almost next door to the College Street compound.

The state government has planned to hand over two floors of the five-storeyed All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health, a central government property, to Presidency.

Higher education minister Bratya Basu said on Friday that the government had written to the Union minister of state for health, Dinesh Trivedi, seeking consent to open Presidency’s second campus at the CR Avenue landmark. Trivedi is from the Trinamul Congress.

“We hope to get a positive response from the health ministry,” said Basu, who had earlier in the day discussed the functioning of the Presidency mentor group with its chairman Sugata Bose. The mentor group chairman said he would meet the vice-chancellor on Saturday to discuss the problems of the university.

Sources at the higher education department said Trivedi had verbally assured the state government that a part of the building would be handed over to Presidency at the earliest.

Much of the building, around 100 metres from the university, has been lying unused since the institute shifted to its Salt Lake campus a few months ago.

“As things stand now, Presidency will be given two floors on rent. Gradually, the entire building will be handed over to it,” said a department official.

The government’s letter to the Union health ministry follows a proposal from Presidency vice-chancellor Amita Chatterjee that the All India Institute of Hygiene and Public Health building be handed over to the fledgling varsity.

Sources said the government wanted the new campus to function from the 2011-12 academic year.

As a Calcutta University affiliate, Presidency used to run postgraduate courses in select subjects. But the space crunch forced the students of those courses, especially in social sciences, to attend classes at CU.

The only special privilege they enjoyed was permission to use the Presidency library.

“Now that Presidency has become a university, it can no longer send its students to CU. Hence, a second campus is a must,” said an official.

Gherao: Around 20 students gheraoed vice-chancellor Chatterjee for four hours to protest the fee hike. The gherao was lifted around 8pm.