KOCHI: A controversy is brewing at the MG University over the reported move of the Syndicate to hand over its stadium complex spread on 10 acres to the Kerala Sports Council (KSC), with a section of the academic community opposing it.
The proposal to develop it into an indoor stadium complex is learnt to have come from Ettumanur MLA Suresh Kurup.
Those opposing the move point out that the university has no sufficient land to undertake the development programmes for which funds have already been granted by MHRD, and also those from Chancellor’s Award and KIIFB. There is even proposal to dismantle some of the existing buildings - some of them renovated spending nearly Rs 3 crore a year back - to facilitate its expansion, they say.
The stadium complex land comprises the new students’ hostel and the buildings housing the School of Physical Education and Sports Sciences (SPESS).
General secretary of the Mahatma Gandhi University Employees Union N. Mahesh has written to Governor P. Sathasivam, who is also the chancellor of the university, seeking his intervention to stall the move. The KSC owns a fully functional indoor stadium at Kottayam hardly 10 km from the University, he said in the letter. “The pathetic part is that as per the draft MoU, the university will have to take the prior permission from KSC to conduct its own events.
Mr Kurup, however, said the ownership of the stadium will be vested with the university and propaganda on the contrary are wrong. “The university will have unfettered access to the stadium,” he told DC. “The difference is that KSC will develop the stadium into a world class one.”
Mr Kurup said the sports Council is a government body and the land of the university, too, comes from the government.
