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Defence University
swings out of Punjab
WSN Network
Chandigarh: Notwithstanding the grandstanding by Punjab CM Parkash
Singh Badal and sundry claims about it, Punjab has been dealt one
more blow by the rulers in New Delhi who have scrapped the much
solidified plans for an Indian National Defence University (INDU) to
come up in Punjab. The venture has now been shifted to Gurgaon in
Haryana and the last word on it was said by the PMO. Punjab had
evinced much interest in the varsity and had offered to provide land
and other facilities. The issue was first raised in 1999 during the
tercentenary celebrations of the founding of the Khalsa. The
university will have courses for the armed forces, the civil
services and the paramilitary forces, and could have proven to be a
major help for the state's youth to find employment in the forces.
The president of the NDU will be a serving three-star general of the
armed services.
Strangely, the decision to pull out from Punjab came after a
high-level committee of the Defence Ministry accompanied by Punjab
Government officials visited Ropar and Fatehgarh Sahib to inspect
the proposed sites in 2006.
Some experts say Haryana simply happened to pursue the matter much
more keenly than Punjab and the Union Minister of State for Defence,
Rao Indrajeet Singh, hailing from Haryana, was able to swing the
case.
3
June 2009
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