If it was made clear in the deal between ISRO and M/S Huges the provider that after April 2011, maintenance of EDUSAT would be the responsibility of the State Government, why was not the commitment fulfilled and why EDUSAT infrastructure, built at a cost of several crore of rupees, is left unused? The purpose for which the facility was provided is defeated. What is more, it has deprived students of distant education scheme of excellent facility of lectures, commentaries and notes which they, otherwise, are not in a position to get benefit from.
The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) made the EDUSAT facility available in Jammu and Kashmir some years back by investing several crores of rupees in setting up of two hubs-one each in Jammu and Srinagar and Satellite Interactive Terminals in nearly 100 educational institutions particularly Colleges, Industrial Training Institutes and District Institutes of Education and Training. This device had proved immensely beneficial to the students who want to build their educational career through distance education system. The launch of EDUSAT was announced with much fanfare. The infrastructure having been provided needed regular maintenance. Consequently understanding was arrived at between M/S Huges Pvt. Ltd. as providers and the Higher Education Department of the State. The way EDUSAT has been left to disuse shows that the authorities in Education Department have been behaving callously. Students can easily invoke judicial intervention to get their right to education and right to information restored. If the Education Department is not in a position to undertake the maintenance of the satellite in a manner as it is devised, it should not have made any commitment. Needless to say that providing satellite service for dissemination of education is gaining fast momentum in the country. The State had taken the right decision of keeping pace with advanced system of bringing knowledge to remotest places in the State. But unfortunately callousness of authorities in the Education Department has dealt a blow to the expectations of student community that depended on the support from satellite system. According to information available through knowledgeable sources, maintenance of the EDUSAT would not be forbidding for the State Government. Lack of funds is not perhaps the real cause of suspension of this facility. It is mismanagement by the concerned at official level that has resulted in suspension of the facility. ISRO has invested good deal of money and the purpose was only to help student community and sections of civil society in the State to benefit from the facility. Department of Education should have made allocation for the maintenance of the satellite beforehand and there should have been no need of approaching the ISRO with the request to extend the services of M/S Huges Ltd. Even after obtaining one year’s extension in maintenance period from M/S Huges, the State Government is still undecided of what it would be doing with the infrastructure.
The Chief Minister has often laid stress on raising the standard of higher education so that the student community is motivated to make researches in all aspects that would lead the State to prosperity. Why has the Education Department lagged behind in the process is a mystery. Steps will have to be taken without loss of time to provide the wherewithal to the EDUSAT programme and make it fully functional. That is the way how education can be brought to the doorsteps of even the remotest student in the hilly State. EDUSAT is not a liability so that the Education Department will play seek and hide with it. With each passing day, we shall be increasingly feeling the necessity of upgrading our system of education to bring it in line with modern system.
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