3 years on, planning & architecture school still on paper

SP&A, Aurangabad, Architecture CollegeThe school of planning & architecture (SPA) announced during the state annual budget three years ago is still limited on paper.

The SPA for Aurangabad was announced in March 2015 and Rs 10 crore was allotted for the same. However, with no progress on the ground, the allotted fund has lapsed. The proposed institution, if it comes up, would be fourth in the country after Delhi, Bhopal and Vijaywada.

The local architecture community as well as the academia was upbeat about the announcement, terming it as milestone move that would alter the face of the city. But all those dreams and aspirations shattered with the long wait.

State government announcement to set up the premier institute was a ploy to deal with outrage over denial for setting up of IIM. The city had high hopes of getting IIM, but Nagpur was chosen over Aurangabad in December 2014, sparking angry reactions from the industry, academia and other stakeholders.

We see clear biased attitude towards Marathwada. While projects meant for Nagpur have been already rolled out, at the same time Marathwada is being grossly neglected. We condemn the government for not fulfilling its promise of setting up SPA in past three years.

It should be noted that chief minister Devendra Fadnavis during July 2016 had held a marathon meeting to clear decks for AIIMS, IIM, IIIT, National Law University and Government Engineering College at his hometown Nagpur. To make public aware of his efforts, he later made a series of tweets.

When contacted, local BJP MLA Atul Save said he was following with the demand related to SPA with chief minister and state education minister Vinod Tawde.

“We are hopeful that the project will take off soon. The government is firm on its stand to set up the SPA at Aurangabad. Both CM and education minister are positive about the same,” he said.

The alleged tug-of-war between two ministries over controlling the architectural schools in the country is being claimed as one of the reasons behind the proposal of setting up the SPA in Aurangabad.

The ministry of human resource development (MHRD) and ministry of urban development ministry (MoUD) was said to be had locked horns over authority over the SPAs.