Chanakya varsity Bill passed as Congress cries foul

The Legislative Assembly on Tuesday approved a Bill to set up a new private university amid a heated debate and a walkout by the Congress.

The Chanakya University Bill was passed on a voice vote.

The proposed multi-disciplinary university will come up near Devanahalli, on the outskirts of Bengaluru, in a campus spread across 100 acres.

The Centre for Education and Social Studies (CESS) is the sponsoring body of the university that has plans to start functioning from the 2022-23 academic year. Senior academic M K Sridhar, who was a member of the National Education Policy (NEP) drafting committee, is the president of the sponsoring body.

Once the Bill is passed in the Council and assented by the Governor, the number of private universities in the state will go up to 22, of which 14 will be in Bengaluru. Also, Chanakya University will be the first to be set up in the state after the implementation of NEP.

Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah objected to the Bill, saying that 50 acres of land worth around Rs 175 crore acquired by the Karnataka Industrial Areas Development Board near the Devanahalli Aerospace Park would be handed over to the university. Smelling a scam, he said that handing over the land reserved for industries to a private university was unconstitutional.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai asked why the Opposition was against a private university, as several private universities were cleared by the Assembly in the past. “What is wrong in providing land for health and educational institutions,” he asked. He urged the Opposition to take up their issues in the court or other forums.

“We are not opposed to the university. But, why should the university get the land near the aerospace park,” former Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar asked.

Bommai said that the government was committed to encouraging educational institutions in Karnataka and would sanction land to ten such varsities if required in the future.

The debate on the Bill led to a din with Congress accusing BJP government of favoring some institutions. Opposing the passage, Congress staged a walkout. “Who is Sridhar? He’s an RSS, ABVP man,” Siddaramaiah said.

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