16-year-old gang-raped by six over 5 days in Andhra Pradesh
Amaravati (AP): A 16-year-old girl was allegedly raped for five days by six persons, including three minors, after being locked up in a room in Ongole town of Andhra Pradesh, police said Sunday.
All those accused of allegedly raping her have been apprehended from different parts of the state and police said they are further investigating the case.
The incident also stirred up a row over safety of women in the state with Home Minister M Sucharita promising stern action.
Prakasam District Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal told reporters that one of the accused befriended the girl when she was waiting for her friend at the RTC bus station in Ongole on June 17.
She was then taken to his room where he and five of his friends allegedly raped her for five days.
The girl, who belonged to the neighbouring Guntur district, escaped from their clutches and reached the bus station on Saturday evening when an on-duty home-guard Venkateswarlu and Assistant Sub-Inspector of Police Babu Rao spotted and rescued her, the police official said.
She was then admitted to the government hospital for treatment and her condition was state to be stable.
Based on the girl's complaint, police launched a manhunt for the accused and nabbed them from different places since late Saturday night.
One of the accused was nabbed at Bitragunta in SPS Nellore district while he was trying to board a train, he added.
Condemning the incident, Andhra Pradesh Director General of Police Gautam Sawang said safety and security of women and children and prevention of crime against them would be given high priority.
Perpetrators of such crimes would be dealt with sternly and brought to book systematically, he said in a statement here. Sawang directed the Prakasam district SP to ensure the case was investigated thoroughly to secure conviction of the accused.
A case under different sections of POCSO Act and IPC was registered against the accused. "This is a heinous crime and we will take deterrent steps to ensure such incidents did not recur," said the Home Minister.
Ongole MLA and Energy Minister Balineni Srinivasa Reddy also condemned the incident.
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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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