The Big Canadian Dreams & Future of NIPER, Raebareli

There are two stories that are connected to each other, although they have no direct connection.

The First Stroy 

In 2008, the Government of India notified 3 national level institutes National Institute of Fashion Technology (NIFT), Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Petroleum Technology (RGIPT), and the National Institute of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER) in Raebareli. All these 3 institutes started functioning in the rented campus of ITI Ltd. Raebareli. After 5 to 6 years, NIFT and RGIPT got their permanent campus and building in the Raebareli district and established themselves. Now, they are fully functional from their campus in the district Raebareli.

RGIPT, Raebareli

NIFT, Raebareli

NIPER, Raebareli was also functioning in the rented campus of ITI Ltd in Raebareli. In 2013, the Government of UP had allotted approximately  50-acre land free of cost to build a permanent campus of NIPER, Raebareli in Bachrawa district Raebareli. Accordingly, the Department of Pharmaceuticals also constituted PMC and some tenders were also floated for campus construction. Even laying of foundation stone ceremony was also planned but due to notification of General Election 2014, it was postponed.

 

In 2016, a permanent director joined the institute. He began to develop various facilities on the rented premises, such as a new canteen building, animal house, and laboratory facilities using public funds. But no effort was made to build a permanent campus on the allotted land.

Inauguration of Canteen

Inauguration of Animal House

Incinerator

Inauguration of Canteen

In 2018, Director decided to shift NIPER, Raebareli from the rented campus Raebareli to a Transit Campus, Lucknow in Sarojini Nagar area as his home was located in Sarojini Nagar. While NIFT and RGIPT were expanding their scope in their respective permanent campus, NIPER, Raebareli was once again was proposed to shift to another rented campus despite allotment of 50-acre land for the permanent campus in Raebareli district. Although plenty of space and several buildings that were vacated by RGIPT were available for expansion of NIPER, Raebareli in ITI campus in Raebareli but Director largely ignored the development of NIPER in Raebareli due to his personal benefit. As per his wish, he shifted the campus of NIPER, Raebareli to Lucknow in a privately own building in July 2018 in the same locality near to his home.

Transit Campus NIPER-R, Lucknow

 

Interestingly and shockingly, most of the facilities developed in ITI the campus in Raebareli by public money were demolished to nullify any possibility of returning back of NIPER on the ITI campus. The No Objection Certificate given by ITI Ltd. also raises serious questions that how they accepted the demolished part of the building.

 

To shift the NIPER campus in Lucknow, a private building was hired without any tender/EOI/newspaper advertisement. Director constituted the Search and Hiring Committee where all contractual staff of NIPER, Raebareli were members. Director himself was Chairman of the Committee and no member was an expert of building/civil work. The Committee shortlisted 3 private buildings out of which two buildings belonged to the same owner.

 

The Director signed 10-year agreement with Heera Lal Yadav Memorial Trust without any Rent Reasonableness Certificate issued by the regional CPWD office. Before shifting the campus, no civil, safety, and electrical auditing of the private building was done which left a threat to the students, faculty, and staff of NIPER. The whole building has seepage and leakage problem during the rainy season. There were several electrical fire incidences in the Lucknow campus of the private building which damaged several scientific instruments of the institute. For this reason, NIPER, Raebareli set up a transformer, stabilizer, earthing and electrical wiring in the rented building costing approx. Rs. 50 lakh of tax payer’s money immediately after shifting the campus.

 

Even the monthly rent of private building was paid Rs. 8, 34,000.00 (more than Rs. 1 crore per annum), NIPER, Raebareli spent approx. Rs. 50 Lakh on civil maintenance of the private building in less than 2 years by tax payer’s money.

So it has been more than 12 years since NIPER struggled to make a permanent campus and building. The government of India opened NIPER, Rae Bareli with a vision to create outstanding human resources in the field of pharmaceutics and research. But even after 12 years, nothing was achieved. Students at NIPER, Rae Bareli have an average salary of Rs. 250000 per annum after completing a master's degree from an institution of "national importance".

Now the second story is very short but very relevant. A top NIPER official had a dream to establish his family in Canada. He has almost achieved the dream. He received Canadian paid citizenship for some members of his family. For his own convenience, NIPER shifted the premises to near his home. Hence personal goals were achieved.

Now the question is why stories on the same page? The answer is that NIPER, Rae Bareli is a classic example of how our bureaucrats and top executives achieve their personal goals, but what about public goals. By spending a lot of public money in the last 12 years  NIPER, Rae Bareli has failed to achieve its goals.

We often blame our government (mostly the political class) for not achieving the target. But if you go through the story of NIPER, Rae Bareli, it is clear that in the same period, two institutions (RGIPT and NIFT) grow in the same area with the help of our government. In the case of NIPER, all decisions were made for the personal benefit of the officers and not for the benefit of the institution. This is the reason why NIPER has not been able to achieve its goal despite the efforts of the government.