Schoolgirl Stripped, Molested by 7 Men on Bihar Road; One Arrested After Video Goes Viral
Bihar, August 27: The police on Monday arrested one of the perpetrators seen in the video while the identities of six other assailants are yet to be ascertained.
Only two days after a video of a woman being molested in Bihar's Gaya district went viral, another such shocking video has surfaced in Saharsa, in which seven men can be seen molesting a schoolgirl on a village road while she cries for help.
The police on Monday arrested one of the perpetrators seen in the video while the identities of six other assailants are yet to be ascertained. Saharsa Superintendent of Police, Rakesh Kumar told News18 that a cop received the video on WhatsApp after which, an alert was sounded in all district police stations.
Soon, the spot where the incident took place was identified. Later, Sadar police station SHO nabbed one of the assailants.
"We are trying to locate the victim and record her statement. Even if the girl does not wish to file a complaint, we will pursue the case based on the video. An FIR has been lodged by the officer who received the video. Our job is to bring all culprits to book," the SP said.
In the video, the girl is seen riding a bicycle when a group of young men accost her and try to waylay her towards the side of the road. While one in the group tries to save her, the others pound on him. Meanwhile, the other boys grope the schoolgirl, snatch her dupatta when she breaks down.
The Nitish Kumar government has been at the receiving end of severe criticism from opposition parties and civil society for a sudden spurt in crime against women, including several videos of women being molested coming to fore.
In May this year, three disturbing cases of sexual assault were reported from Jehanabad while a woman was raped in front of her husband on a busy road in Gaya.
Bihar Police data on crime against woman show a disturbing rise between January and May this year. In January, 74 cases of rape were recorded in the state, which went up to to 184 in May.
Earlier this month, the Bihar government was left red faced when the Muzaffarpur shelter home sex scandal surfaced in which 34 minor inmates were sexually abused over a prolonged period of time.
Courtesy: www.news18.com
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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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