Govt drops pvt university bill

Vaibhav Ganjapure TNN 

Nagpur: The Maharashtra government has dropped the plan to introduce the ‘Private Universities Act’ to regulate private universities. The Uturn by the government comes after the cabinet cleared the bill, introduced by the state higher and technical education department, on December 13. 
    The bill was to come up for discussion in the legislative council and was even mentioned in the daily schedule last week. But it was deferred by the chairman following a request by the government. The bill came under criticism from members on the issue of reservation. Even Governor K Sankaranarayanan had referred it back after demands were made for reservation in these institutions. 
    Though chief minister Prithviraj Chavan refused to confirm the development directly, he hinted to TOI that since the government had to make a new bill for every private university, they were contemplating making some changes in the bill. “We are studying establishment of many such universities which have already opened centres in other states andwillthen make necessary changes,” he said. 
    However, minister for higher and technical education Rajesh Tope confirmed the development, stating that the existing bill had been dropped and new model guidelines will be framed for entry of these universities. 
    He,however, remained noncommittal about the percentage of reservation in the new guidelines . 
    Tope made it clear that all these universities would have to be cleared by both the assembly and council to become operational.


Source:::: The Times of India, 21-12-2012, p.04. http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Default/Client.asp?Daily=TOIM&showST=true&login=default&pub=TOI&Enter=true&Skin=TOINEW&AW=1356080949251