Ranchi, Feb. 27: The Jharkhand government has decided on autonomy to revive the glory of Netarhat Residential School founded in 1954.

Chief minister Arjun Munda, who was today presiding over a meeting of the human resource development department, has asked it to submit a proposal before the cabinet in this regard.

The department, which had tabled a proposal on reviving the recruitment process of teachers for the school, has been asked to club it along with the proposal on autonomy.

?We had initially raised the issue of filling teachers? posts at the Netarhat school, as there had been no recruitment for the last 20 years. The chief minister has asked us to submit a joint proposal before the Cabinet to help revive the glory of Netarhat, ? HRD minister Pradeep Yadav told The Telegraph.

?We will contact former students of the school and work out a proposal for autonomy. We hope to draft it in a fortnight,? the minister added.

The school, which has produced a galaxy of IAS, educationists and other luminaries in various fields, had fallen on bad days long before Jharkhand was created, as there was no recruitment after teachers retired. Currently, ad hoc teachers are taking classes.

The former vice-chancellor of Ranchi University and an alumni, K.K. Nag, who, in fact, belonged to the first batch of students at Netarhat, has welcomed the move on autonomy. But he wonders: ?What kind of an autonomy will it be? Because, even the Ranchi University is an autonomous institution and everybody knows what kind of autonomy it enjoys!?

?We welcome the autonomy bid, but at the same time we want to remind the government that the school was started with an aim to promote talent even within the poor sections of society. Thus, the fee structure was kept moderately low. If autonomy means a change for the worse, the government should think twice. Now it is most important to immediately recruit teachers,? said Nag.

The department, on the other hand, has constituted a committee under the chairmanship of Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya to decide the nitty-gritty for opening a National Law College in Jharkhand.

The HRD minister said: ?We have constituted the committee to suggest the administrative set-up of the college and how the vice-chancellor, the pro vice-chancellor and teachers could be selected for it. We want to start the college from the 2006 academic session itself. We would like to reserve 60 per cent seats for Jharkhand students, while 40 per cent would for outsiders.?