HERMONITE AMAR SINGH RAI GETS ‘DARJEELING UNIVERSITY’

Darjeeling will soon have its own university in the hills. Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee at a function in Darjeeling on the occasion of Teacher’s Day (Sept 5) laid the foundation for the ‘Darjeeling Hill University’.

The University will be located at Mungpo, about 30 km from Darjeeling. The credit for renaming of the proposed “Greenfield University” to “Darjeeling University” goes to Darjeeling MLA Amar Singh Rai. When the bill for the new university was tabled in the Bengal Assembly in July this year, Rai urged the Bengal Government to rename it as “Darjeeling University.”

The need for a university in the hills was first raised in 1955. The establishment of the North Bengal University (NBU) in the plains in Siliguri in 1962 did not fully cater to the needs of the hill people.

Amar Rai, an alumnus (Hermonite) of Mt. Hermon School (brother of Hermonite Pratap Singh Rai), has now been asked to head a special committee to oversee the development work in the hills. The decision to form this committee was taken on September 4 during a meeting chaired by the Bengal CM.

“We want to develop the hills for which we have to make new plans and projects,” Mamata said. She said all aspects of development in the hills, including tourism and education, would be taken up by the new committee, whose members include MLAs of Kalimpong and Kurseong.