Kathmandu, September 15

Prime Minister KP Sharma Oli has expressed his disagreement with the decision to give the land of Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwan, for the construction of an international cricket stadium.

Speaking at a senate meeting of the university yesterday, the PM said the decision taken by the university was unscientific. The PM said the land of the university should be used for researches and studies related to the agriculture sector.

According to Ishwori Prasad Kadariya, an associate professor at the university and head of centre for Biotechnology, eight acres of land belonging to the university has been separated for Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, but the executive council decided to provide the land to Bharatpur Municipality without consulting the stakeholders.

Kadariya said the land, which is being used by the Agriculture and Forestry University, was owned by Tribhuvan University and AFU did not have any right to provide land to others for any purpose.

Tirtha Raj Khaniya, vice-chancellor at Tribhuvan University, said about 142 acres of land of TU had been occupied by the agriculture university illegally. TU got 16 acres land for Engineering Campus while rest of the land has been provided to agriculture university.

“Our property has already been taken by the agriculture university, so we do not have any objection to their decision,” he added.

Demanding annulment of the decision taken by the executive council of the university to provide land to Dhurmus-Suntali Foundation and affiliation to eight private colleges, students and teachers of Agriculture and Forestry University have been protesting for the last two months.

According to Professor Kadariya, Executive Council of the University had provided the property of the university to Bharatpur Municipality. And the municipality allowed Dhurmus-Suntali Foundation to construct international cricket stadium on it.

Chairman of DhurmusSuntali foundation SitaramKattel told the The Himalayan Times that Bharatpur Municipality had provided the land to construct a cricket stadium. He also said they had finalised land for the construction of international cricket stadium after conducting necessary research.

It would be a huge loss for the government if it government refused to give us the land. We respect the decision of the government and will construct the stadium at another place if the government provides us land,” he added.

Meanwhile, the senate meeting has also cancelled affiliation granted to the eight private colleges.