Minister's rare gesture to varsity Basant Kumar Mohanty New Delhi, : Human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar today promised to consider central university status for a private university, something never done before, amid an embargo on such upgrades for state universities. http://www.telegraphindia.com/1160907/jsp/frontpage/story_106770.jsp Javadekar gave the assurance to the Jagadguru Rambhadracharya Handicapped University on a day he received an honorary DLitt from the institution. The varsity is run exclusively for the physically challenged by a blind spiritual guru at Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh.
"He (Javadekar) assured that ministry of HRD will consider the proposal of Jagatguru (sic) Rambhadracharya Handicapped University to make it a central university to further improve education for specially abled students," said a statement from the Press Information Bureau, the Union government's publicity wing. Over a year ago, the ministry - then under Smriti Irani - had taken a policy decision not to upgrade any state university to a central university. It had issued a note on May 1, 2015, saying the decision had been taken for "reasons of legacy issues, adjustment of existing staff and disaffiliation of affiliated colleges". That decision apparently put paid to proposals seeking the upgrade for several universities, including Jadavpur University in Calcutta and the Sant Gadge Baba Amravati University in Maharashtra. Javadekar told the university that a team of officials would visit the campus for an inspection, sources said. The university, an initiative by spiritual leader Rambhadracharya, its chancellor, was established by an act of the Uttar Pradesh Assembly in 2001. Conversion into a central university would mean a government takeover of the institution. Jurist and educationist N.R. Madhava Menon said no private university had till now been upgraded to a central university. Among the few state universities granted the status are Allahabad University, Guru Ghasidas Vishwavidyalaya in Chhattisgarh, Dr Harisingh Gour University in Madhya Pradesh and the Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University in Uttarakhand. There are instances of the Centre taking over private institutions other than universities, but only if they were known for their excellence and were suffering from financial difficulties. They were not converted to central universities. For example, the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai, both set up by the Tatas in the early 20th century, were later taken over by the human resource development ministry and the department of atomic energy, respectively. These institutions are now central government-run deemed universities. Menon defended the upgrade of private universities to central universities in principle. "There's nothing wrong in it if the proposal has come from the university," he said. "If the private university is unable to improve its quality, why can the Centre not take it over to ensure the students do not suffer?" Javadekar lauded Rambhadracharya, awarded a Padma Vibhushan last year, for his contribution to the education of specially abled children. "This university has set exemplary ideal (sic) where around 5,000 specially abled students have been educated, successfully employed and empowered," the PIB statement said. No response had been received till tonight to an email sent to ministry spokesperson Ghanshyam Goel, asking whether the ministry had gone back on its policy decision on upgrading universities. EmailPrintFacebookTwitterMore -- Avinash Shahi Doctoral student at Centre for Law and Governance JNU Register at the dedicated AccessIndia list for discussing accessibility of mobile phones / Tabs on: http://mail.accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/mobile.accessindia_accessindia.org.in Search for old postings at: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ To unsubscribe send a message to [email protected] with the subject unsubscribe. To change your subscription to digest mode or make any other changes, please visit the list home page at http://accessindia.org.in/mailman/listinfo/accessindia_accessindia.org.in Disclaimer: 1. Contents of the mails, factual, or otherwise, reflect the thinking of the person sending the mail and AI in no way relates itself to its veracity; 2. AI cannot be held liable for any commission/omission based on the mails sent through this mailing list..
