Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy on Friday ruled out the setting up of a proposed Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) at Basara in Adilabad district, saying the temple town lacked basic infrastructure for locating the prestigious institute.
Amid growing protest over shifting the IIT from the original location to Medak near Hyderabad, a delegation of legislators and leaders belonging to the ruling Congress party met Reddy and urged him to reconsider the decision.
The chief minister told the delegation that it was not possible to set up an IIT at Basara as the town lacked basic infrastructure and do not fulfil the necessary requirements to locate such an institute.
He pointed out that since the union ministry for human resources development had laid down the condition that the institute should come up at a distance of 40 to 50 km from the airport, the government took a decision to set it up in Medak.
Following the sanctioning of IIT for Andhra Pradesh by the central government last month, the state government had announced that it would come up near Sangareddy in Medak district, about 60 km from the upcoming international airport on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The state government ignored Basara, which has been projected by successive governments as the location for IIT for more than a decade.
This evoked sharp a reaction from all political parties and student bodies in Adilabad and neighbouring districts and even in parts of Maharashtra bordering Andhra Pradesh.
In protest, Adilabad MP T Madhusudhan Reddy, belonging to Telangana Rashtra Samiti, on Tuesday announced his resignation.
During his visit to Adilabad district on Thursday, Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh had said that IIT at Basara would not serve the cause of the backward region.
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