Opposition to Vedant University gathers momentum in Orissa

Bhubaneswar,Jan 22(UNI) The opposition to the Vedant University by Anil Agarwal foundation has gathered momentum with villagers, eminent citizens and various bodies joining hands demanding cancellation of the MoU and a CBI inquiry into the entire deal by the Naveen Patnaik government.

Talking to newspersons here, former Orissa Advocate General Jayant Das described the MoU signed by the state government with the Vedant foundation as an ''imaginary and panic stricken'' against the interest of the state.

He questioned the land acquisition being carried out by the government without any valuation for a private organisation controlled by four members of a family.

The former Advocate General said the MoU was signed with the Vedant Foundation, a private company but later was converted into Anil Agarwal Foundation when objections were raised in some quarters that the Foundation being a private company, was not entitled to allotment of land by the government.

It may be recalled here that the Vedant Foundation had signed a MoU with the state government on July 19,2006, to set up a Rs 15,000 crore world class University spread over 8000 acres of prime land on the Puri-Konark marine drive.

Mr Das demanded that the land acquisition for the university be stopped forthwith as the state government had not signed a fresh MoU with the Anil Agarwal Foundation and there has been no project report submitted by the foundation on the proposed university.

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