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Amidst objections from the Opposition and protests by student unions, the Telangana Assembly passed the Private Universities Bill on Wednesday, allowing private entities to set up autonomous universities in the State.
The Opposition parties alleged that the State government had neglected the State universities that are starved of funds and teachers.
‘Posts vacant’
“Over 1,600 teacher posts are lying vacant. The government is not doing anything to improve the situation in the State universities,” Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader K Laxman said.
He was taking part in the discussion in the Assembly after Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari introduced the Telangana State Private Universities (Establishment and Regulation) Bill 2018 in the post-lunch session.
“Telangana Rashtra Samithi MPs have been stalling Lok Sabha on reservation issue for the last few days but the government here is introducing Private Universities Bill that doesn't provide for reservations,” he said.
Kadiam Srihari said the idea was to create world-class academic institutions, making the students globally competitive. He assured the House that the establishment of private universities would not weaken the public education system.
“We have allotted ₹420 crore to various State universities for development of infrastructure in the last four years. We are going to fill up 1,061 university teacher posts,” he said.
The Bill requires private universities “to establish and maintain a campus with international standards of education and develop infrastructure for research in higher education.”
Reservation for State
The Bill reserves 25 per cent of seats in all the courses for students from the State. The universities should get NAAC (National Assessment and Accreditation Council) accreditation within five years of the commencement of courses.
Meanwhile, representatives of several student unions staged a protest near the Assembly, opposing the Bill. They alleged that the Bill would be detrimental to the public education system.
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