GUWAHATI, Aug 1: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday claimed that Meghalaya’s University of Science and Technology (USTM) has been constructed on forest land and it has already been brought to the notice of the Supreme Court.
‘The university is on forest land, and whether USTM will be there after two years, no one can guarantee,’ the CM said at a press conference here.
Sarma has on several previous occasions criticised USTM chancellor Mahbabul Haque, who was also arrested earlier this year for allegedly promising students that they would be allowed to use unfair means in exams to score high marks, but was later released on bail.
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The chief minister said the matter has been brought to the notice of the Supreme Court, and it was up to the Meghalaya government to take action on this.
‘I keep praying to God that it be demolished as early as possible. It is not an educational institution but an institution that has commercialised education,” he said.
“If it had been in Assam, ‘I would have sorted this out a long time ago,” Sarma added.
Reacting to Haque’s recent statement that he would take responsibility for the education of those children who have been rendered homeless in the recent eviction drives, the CM said that he tries to enter into all matters.
Haque, along with five teachers of a school in Patharkandi of Sribhumi district, were arrested on February 22 from Guwahati and sent to 14 days’ judicial custody. Police also filed multiple cases against him in different police stations of Gossaigaon, Kokrajhar, Barpeta and Sonipur.
The Gauhati High Court granted bail to Haque in connection with two cases registered in Sribhumi — the first on March 3 and the second on March 5 — while also restraining his arrest in three other cases filed in Gossaigaon, Kokrajhar, and Barpeta.
He was granted bail in the Sonitpur case on March 24.
The USTM chancellor, who also heads the ERD Foundation, operates various educational institutions, including a school at Patharkandi.
Haque was embroiled in a controversy last year over his OBC certificate, which he had allegedly obtained “fraudulently” in Sribhumi district in the 1990s and was subsequently cancelled.
The CM had also held USTM and Haque responsible for “flood jihad” against Guwahati, claiming that the water flowing down from the varsity campus, which is located on a hill adjacent to the city, leads to massive flooding in the city. (PTI)
