BHUBANESWAR: A movement for the establishment of a central university is gathering momentum in Puri.With elections looming, the demand for a central varsity is likely to reach a crescendo in the coming days. In a meeting on Monday, representatives of a cross-section of the society said the movement would intensify in future. Several banners, including a huge one near hospital square with the words "Demand for BHU-like central university in Puri", have come up in the temple town along VIP road, near Puri ITI, at Harekrushnapur bus junction and in front of many private houses.Behind the movement is a group that calls itself 'Mission for Central University Puri' and includes former student leaders, local intelligentsia, businessmen, social workers, trustees of different organizations and political leaders."A WhatsApp group - Mission Puri Central Univ - espousing the cause has a large number of followers," said former president of Utkal University students' union and coordinator of 'Mission for Central University Puri', Sangram Keshari Das. The term 'BHU-type' is important as people want the central university in Puri to be as broad-based and multi-disciplinary as the Uttar Pradesh university , he said. Higher education minister Ananta Das said the matter was the lookout of the Centre. "We don't have any objection if a central varsity is established in Puri, one of the four dhams of the country."Puri MP Pinaki Misra has thrown his weight behind the movement. "I support the cause," he said. Bijay Sundarray, a senior faculty member of the personnel management and industrial relations department of Utkal University, said, "It is in Puri where Adi Shankara (788-820 AD) established his monastery Bhogabardhana (Gobardhan) peetha to preach the doctrine of adwaita vedanta (monism) to people. It has been a place of learning since ancient times.""We support a central university in Puri. There is no dearth of infrastructure here. It will further research on the Jagannath cult as well," said Jagannath Bastia , a prominent activist.

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