Bhubaneswar: Former chief secretary Bijoy Kumar Patnaik has resigned from the post of the president of Vedanta University project, raising doubts about the programme taking off in the state.

Patnaik had joined the project in April 2015 after resigning from the membership of the Odisha Human Rights Commission. "I will move out of the office after the completion of my notice period.Since past two years, I have done my best to establish the university, but I found the Anil Agrawal Foundation was not interested towards the proposal to have a world class institution," Patnaik said.

The foundation signed an MoU with the state government on July 19, 2006 to set up the university on 7,000 acres on the Puri-Konark marine drive. Though the state government had given more than 3,837 acres to the foundation, the project has been stuck in land acquisition imbroglio as Orissa High Court in 2010 had struck down the acquisition on procedural issues and directed the government to restore land to the original owners. The state had challenged the high court verdict in the Supreme Court in 2011, and the matter is still pending.

"There are many barriers to establish a university. Land acquisition is one of them. But, it does not mean that we will wait for the Supreme Court order for its establishment. If we wait for it, the foreign universities, who are willing to collaborate with us, will lose their patience and think the university is not serious about its promise," Patnaik said.

On July 25 this year, The Telegraph had carried a news report "Andhra offers land for Vedanta University". The report said the Andhra Pradesh government had offered the foundation land to set up the Rs 15,000-crore Vedanta University at Knowledge City in Amaravati, the upcoming capital of the state.