About 1,500 people shifted to relief camps in Hyderabad following heavy rains
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Hyderabad (PTI): About 1,500 people living in low-lying areas here were shifted to relief camps as the Musi river was in spate following heavy rains in the city, officials said on Saturday. Other parts of Telangana also received heavy rains.
The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) said 10 relief camps were set up to provide shelter to those evacuated from low-lying areas.
Food and other essential items were being provided to those staying in the relief camps, it said in a release.
State Transport Minister Ponnam Prabhakar, GHMC Commissioner RV Karnan and other officials made field visits, including the flood-hit areas, for taking relief works.
The flood water entered the Mahatma Gandhi Bus Station (MGBS), a major bus complex in Telangana, prompting authorities to halt the bus services. Passengers waiting for buses in the complex were shifted out safely late on Friday.
Prabhakar said the government is taking measures to prevent loss of life and that it has set up relief camps.
He added that buses are being operated from alternative areas in the city in view of the flooding in the MGBS.
Hyderabad and other parts of Telangana continued to receive rains on Saturday. The Telangana Development Planning Society said 10.8 mm of rainfall was reported at Vijaynagar Colony and Shaikpet in the city during 8.30 am to 10 pm on Saturday.
Lingaipalle in Medak district received 105.8 mm of rainfall, followed by 92.5 mm of rain at Manoor in Sangareddy district, it said.
The Met Centrre issued an yellow alert and forecast that heavy rainn is very likely to occur at isolated places in Adilabad, Nirmal and other districts on September 28.
Thunderstorm is likely to continue at various places in the state during the next three days, it said.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, who enquired about the situation following the heavy inflows in the Musi, directed officials to take precautionary measures by monitoring the situation in all localities adjacent to the river and shift people living in low-lying areas to relief camps if necessary.
The water level in Musi river rose after the gates of Hyderabad’s twin reservoirs -- Himayatsagar and Osmansagar -- were raised following the heavy rains.
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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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