Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the new campus of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar School of Economics University, Bengaluru (BASE), unveiling a 22-feet bronze statue of Dr. Ambedkar. The campus has 13 blocks newly built at a cost of ₹250 crore on the 43.45-acre campus on Jnanabharathi campus of Bangalore University.
This prompted the Opposition Congress to ask why the BJP was claiming credit for the former’s flagship project, established in 2017.
Inaugurated in 2017
Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah recounted that BASE was established in 2017 and then President of India Pranab Mukherjee had laid the foundation stone for the school. The project was completed in record six months and former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh inaugurated BASE also in 2017. However, he wished the best for the inauguration of the new campus.
Former Minister Priyank Kharge, who claimed building BASE to commemorate Dr. Ambedkar’s 125th birth anniversary was his brainchild, said: “Why would the Prime Minister inaugurate an already semi-functional campus with three batches of graduates having already graduated?” tweeted. “Have we achieved what we intended to? Not really, a far cry from it. The current Govt has not understood its potential and is running it like an ordinary college. BASE has immense potential to grow as an international institution for economic, social and political studies,” he tweeted.
ITI training
Mr. Modi also dedicated 150 Industrial Training Institutes (ITI) in the State which have been upgraded as Technology Hubs in collaboration with TATA Group under Udyoga Programme at a cost of ₹4,736 crore. The programme will train 1.2 lakh ITI students, who are industry ready, every year.
