Ex-CS to head panel on RDPR university

The State government has appointed former chief secretary S V Ranganath as chairperson for the expert committee on setting up a Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) university in the State.

Ranganath, who retired in October 2013, has been given the responsibility of preparing a detailed report for curriculum and infrastructure required to start the RDPR university in the State.

Ranganath will head the committee comprising 7-10 members, including retired vice chancellors and academicians, to draw up a detailed report on setting up the university under the RDPR department.

The committee, which will function from its office at the Vidhana Soudha, should finalise the admission criteria and design curriculum. It will visit several other states across the country where such universities are set up, to help the State in emulating the successful modules, it is said.  

“We had set a time frame of six months to submit the report and this was due earlier this month, as the committee was to start functioning in January. However, now we have extended the time frame till September,” said T M Vijay Bhaskar, additional chief secretary, RDPR.