USTM built on forest land, may not exist in 2 years: Himanta Biswa Sarma

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Friday launched a scathing attack on the University of Science and Technology, Meghalaya (USTM), claiming it has been constructed on forest land and may not survive the next two years. 

The issue, he said, has already been brought to the attention of the Supreme Court.

“The university is on forest land, and whether USTM will be there after two years, no one can guarantee,” Sarma said at a press conference, expressing strong disapproval of the institution and its chancellor, Mahbabul Haque. “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 added.

The CM further remarked, “If it had been in Assam, I would have sorted this out a long time ago,” indirectly criticising the Meghalaya government for inaction.

This is not the first time Sarma has targeted USTM or Haque. The chancellor, who heads the ERD Foundation that runs multiple educational institutions, was arrested earlier this year for allegedly allowing students to use unfair means in examinations, although he was later released on bail.

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Reacting to Haque’s recent pledge to educate children displaced in eviction drives, Sarma said, “He tries to poke his nose into everything.”

Haque, along with five teachers from a Patharkandi school in Sribhumi district, was arrested on February 22 from Guwahati and sent to 14 days’ judicial custody. Multiple cases were lodged against him in police stations across Gossaigaon, Kokrajhar, Barpeta, and Sonitpur. He was granted bail in Sribhumi and Sonitpur cases by the Gauhati High Court, which also restrained his arrest in other pending cases.

Haque has also faced scrutiny over an OBC certificate, allegedly obtained fraudulently in the 1990s, which was later cancelled. Last year, CM Sarma accused USTM of being responsible for “flood jihad” in Guwahati, blaming the university’s hilltop campus for causing severe waterlogging in the city.

The controversy surrounding USTM continues to escalate, with Sarma maintaining that the institution represents everything wrong with the commercialisation of education.