Centre drops NURDS project in Thiruvananthapuram

Thiruvananthapuram: The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment has officially confirmed that it has abandoned the 2015-16 budget announcement of upgrading the existing National Institute for Speech and Hearing (NISH) in Thiruvananthapuram into National University of Rehabilitation and Disability Studies (NURDS).

This was informed by the Petitions Committee of Lok Sabha to Dr Shashi Tharoor MP. As per the new decision of the Central Government, NURDS will be shifted to the North-East region.  This would help in bringing the areas in par with other areas in the area of disability management, the Petition Committee pointed out.

The committee pointed out that the central government felt that it was better to have this university in a backward region of the country.

Earlier, the state government in line with the budget promise had offered support to the Centre and had allocated land for setting up the national university. However, the committee said the decision is purely a prerogative of the Centre. 

The committee also pointed out that the government of Assam has already agreed to allocate 50 acres of land.

Mr Tharoor in a statement issued here on Friday has strongly opposed the Centre on the issue. 

He has requested the Petitions Committee to reconsider its stance on the matter. 

The committee has merely accepted the government’s reply instead of inquiring into the basis of its decision process, Tharoor said.