To end the tussle between Bangalore University (BU) and Bangalore Central University (BCU) on taking over University Visvesvaraya College Of Engineering (UVCE), the newly appointed principal secretary higher education department chaired a meeting of vice chancellors of both the universities.

Anil Kumar, principal secretary, higher education department, decided to go ahead with the earlier decision, where an expert committee would be formed to decide the fate of the UVCE.

“We did not take any new decisions. Both the VCs cleared their stands. So we decided to stick to the old decision, where there was a recommendation for the formation of an expert committee to decide the faith of the institution,” Anil Kumar told DH.

The VCs briefed the principal secretary about the situation of the respective universities. As recommended earlier, the expert committee would be formed, which would decide to which university the UVCE should be handed over to.

Currently, the UVCE is under the BU administration. But the BCU officials were demanding the control of the institution according to the trifurcation treaty. According to the pact all the immovable property on the Central College campus would belong to the BCU.

At present, the BU has taken up the renovation work of the UVCE.

“The meeting decided to constitute another committee to look after the Jnana Jyothi auditorium at the BCU campus. As the BU is still holding the authority over the auditorium, this has also become a cause for another tussle. However, the future of UVCE is now completely dependent on the yet to be formed committee. There was also a suggestion to make the institution an autonomous body, but the committee has to decide,” said a senior official of the department.