Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Saturday wrote to Union Minister of Education Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank urging for his intervention for an early cancellation of the Odisha University (Amendment) Bill recently passed in the State Assembly.
“Odisha Government’s hasty, unprecedented and anomalous promulgation of the Odisha University Amendment Bill, 2020 has met with near-universal criticism from the State’s academic community. The Bill is in complete contradiction to the PM’s visionary National Education Policy 2020. The Bill seeks to strip away the autonomy of higher educational institutions in the State by bureaucratization,” mentioned Pradhan.
Abolition of Senate with the State-controlled Syndicate, manipulating the appointment of Vice-Chancellors and appointment of teachers via OPSC are cause for grave concern.
Many provisions in the Bill are against the University Grant Commission norms. As education is in the concurrent list, the State Government can’t take decision alone. Thus, I urge youth interneuron for cancellation of the Odisha University Ammendent Bill at the earliest.