The long standing issue of shifting the campus of RKuajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) to Ramanagara has finally taken off and soon, the new campus at Ramanagara will now be operational. Visiting the RGUHS a few days ago, Health, Family Welfare and Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar stated that the university will be shifted soon and the foundation ceremony will be held in the next three months.
The shifting of the university campus to Ramanagara has been debated since 2007. It has often faced several hurdles ranging from pending land litigation cases in various courts to political slug-fest between political parties. Due to these issues, the shifting of the campus was delayed for over 10 years.
Back in 2007, HD Kumaraswamy-led state government had decided to set up a new campus of RGUHS at Ramanagara and acquired over 70-acres of land. The farmers were paid compensation as per 2007 regulations. Since then, the issue has snowballed into a political controversy.
Later, farmers, whose land was acquired, had moved the Supreme Court demanding compensation as per 2011 guidelines and following this, the RGUHS had written to the state government to allocate alternative land. Meanwhile, questioning the state government’s move, the then syndicate members of RGUHS had approached the court.
A few of the syndicate members said, “Even now, the shifting of campus is not that easy as some part of the land that was allocated is still under litigation and the same can not be acquired without clearing the litigation.” Yet another syndicate member said, “Our argument is that university can not buy land unless it is litigation free and not a single rupee from the university fund will be transferred to the government for construction of campus purpose.”