Pvt varsities: Law to be tweaked for courses

Higher Education Minister G T Devegowda on Wednesday said the government would bring in amendments to the private universities legislation to stop the varsities from offering agricultural sciences and technology course.

Devegowda was referring to the Rai Technology University Act, 2013. Replying to BJP member N Ravi Kumar in the Legislative Council, Devegowda said he had held discussions with Agriculture Minister Shivashankar Reddy in this regard.

He said that the government would not allow the establishment of private agricultural universities or colleges henceforth. Also, agricultural colleges and universities would be brought under the Agriculture department, he said.

Agriculture university students across the state have been staging protests, demanding that the government stop privatisation of the agricultural sciences courses.

Officials said presently, Rai University was the only agriculture varsity offering agricultural sciences and technology course. The Higher Education Council has recommended to the government to delete Section 7 of the Act, to stop the varsity from offering the said course.

Kumar said that a private agriculture university set up in Doddaballapur had flouted many rules. The university was collecting fees 10% more than stipulated amount from students. Protem chairman of the House Basavaraj Horatti said the issue was serious and that the government should take stock of the matter at the earliest.

Devegowda said his department had initiated the process to hire 11,000 guest lecturers to fill up vacancies in PU colleges. Replying to Congress member Harish Kumar, Devegowda said the existing vacancies would be filled through the online process.

Kumar said, in Dakshina Kannada district alone, more than 2,000 lecturer posts were vacant. “Though the colleges reopened for this academic year on June 25, classes are not being held because there are no lecturers. This is a serious problem,” he added.