Gurupura Jodukere Kambala on April 12 to be floodlit, says organizing committee president
Mangaluru: The 2nd Muloor-Addur Jodukere Kambala festival will be organized in the fields near Manibettuguttu in Gurupura on Saturday, April 12, the Kambala Organization Committee President Inayat Ali has told the media.
This is the final kambala programme in the district for the year. The Committee, which is completing the preparations, has planned to make it special by installing floodlights, Ali has said, adding that more than 200 pairs of buffaloes are expected to participate in the show this year.
Addressing a press meet on Thursday, the Committee President said that the stage programme will be inaugurated at 6:30 pm on Saturday by Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, in the presence of Speaker UT Khader and District In-charge Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao.
The programme will be inaugurated by president of the Bunts’ association Ajit Kumar Rai Maladi. Also, the event is to be held in the presence of various religious heads, including Harinarayana Das Asranna, priest of the Shri Durgaparameshwari Temple, Kateel, V Rev. Fr. Rudolph Ravi D’Sa, priest of the Pompei Church in Gurupura, and Kaikamba Asraruddin Masjid head Abdul Kabeer Darimi.
Speaking further on the special features of the kambala event this year, Ali said that tents of German-make will provided to the participants and a digital platform will be set up for the programme.
Committee Honorary President Padmanabh Kotian, said that, in addition to the formal kambala event, a Yakshagana programme, ‘Yaksha Vasundhara’, is to be organized by the Karnataka Yakshagana Academy at 10 am Saturday. A show in honour of Yakshagana teacher late GT Annu Bhat, a discussion on performance as per the Thenkuthittu school of Yakshagana, Talamaddale and an overnight Yakshagana show will be held on the occasion.
Ali has said that the owner of every buffalo that participates in the kambala race will be honoured with a silver coin. Kambala star ‘Dooja’ buffalo, which has won the race a record 69 times, will be felicitated. The Postal Department will also release a stamp in honour of ‘Dooja’ during the event.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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