Govt to review decision on BU bifurcation

Guv opposes the Bill proposing the split

The Karnataka government will review the decision to bifurcate the Bangalore University.

“The decision to bifurcate the University was not made by us. It was their decision. We will look into the Bill and then take a call,” Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Saturday.

He was reacting to the statement made by Governor H R Bhardwaj on returning the Bill on BU bifurcation. Bhardwaj, who is also pro-chancellor, had questioned the bifurcation of BU while speaking to the media on the sidelines of the convocation of the Karnataka Samskrit University on Friday.

“Why should the University be bifurcated? Bangalore University is one of the most important in Karnataka, apart from those of Mysore and Dharwad. I will not agree to it,” he had said.

Criticising the Governor’s statement, former Higher Education minister C T Ravi, who pushed the Bill in the final months of the BJP regime, said the ‘arbitrary’ announcement to return the Bill seeking bifurcation of the Bangalore University had come as a rude shock to the academic circles and also to the people of Bangalore Urban district who would have benefited the most.

He claimed that the decision to bifurcate the University was taken by the earlier government (coalition regime) after deliberations. A committee, headed by former vice-chancellor Dr Rudrappa and comprising several education experts, recommended trifurcation of the varsity, he said.

Citing that the BU has no less than 650 colleges under its purview, Ravi said that the decision was primarily required to keep an ‘effective control over them’.

He said that the Knowledge Commission, a brainchild of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and currently headed by Sam Pitroda, had strongly recommended the formation of more universities by bifurcating the existing ones.

Ravi claimed that the Governor was no authority on the subject and that his ‘unilateral’ decision to disapprove the bifurcation was not on the basis of any expert opinion or on merit of the case.