AURANGABAD: Maharashtra higher and technical education minister Uday Samant on Wednesday announced that a regional centre of the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Technological University (Batu) would come up in Aurangabad.
The announcement had raised many eyebrows as one such dedicated centre was earlier set up in Aurangabad, but it was abruptly closed in the first half of 2020. Samant, who was on an official tour of Aurangabad, announced that the “new facility” would come up at the Government Engineering College here, which was the place of operation for the scrapped centre as well.
The earlier regional centre was later shifted to the Marathwada auto cluster in Waluj. Pralhad Lulekar, a retired faculty member of the Dr Babasaheb Ambedkar Marathwada University (Bamu), was in charge then. While Lulekar stepped down from the post due to the alleged apathy of the Batu administration in empowering the centre, the technological university later shifted the available workforce to its headquarters at Lonere in Raigad district.
Local Shiv Sena leaders defended Samant saying that he only responded to the demand raised by a group of principals from the city-based engineering colleges that are affiliated to the Batu. “The college principals met the minister and discussed their demands. The principals must have given a wrong briefing to the minister that Aurangabad does not have a regional centre,” Tukaram Saraf, the head of Sena’s student wing, said.
When contacted, Ulhas Shiurkar, one of the principals who met Samant during his official tour, said the minister was handed over a detailed memorandum of demands regarding the strengthening of the Batu. “The memorandum had a mention of the status of regional centres of Batu and the demand for filling up posts. The minister has assured us that he would look into our demand and announced a fresh start by setting up the regional centre at the Government Engineering College here,” he said.
Among other announcements, Samant promised revival of the Sant Vidyapeeth at Paithan in Aurangabad district and starting of new courses at the Government Polytechnic here.
