Uttarakhand: One killed, 11 missing, three rescued after landslides, flooding hit Chamoli villages
Gopeshwar (PTI): One person has been killed, 11 people are feared trapped under debris and 20 have been injured as landslides and flooding triggered by heavy rain flattened more than 30 houses in four villages of Uttarakhand's Chamoli district on Thursday.
One body was recovered from the debris, while three people -- two women and a child -- were rescued alive in Kuntari Lagaphali village, the State Emergency Operation Centre (SEOC) in Dehradun said.
The deceased was identified as Narendra Singh (42), it said.
Eleven people -- seven from Kuntari Lagaphali and two each from Kuntari Lagasarpani and Dhurma -- are missing, the SEOC said.
Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had told reporters earlier in Dehradun that 14 people were missing following the landslides.
All four affected villages come under the Nandanagar area, about 260 km from Dehradun and 50 km from the Chamoli district headquarters at Gopeshwar. Nandanagar is already reeling from land subsidence.
The disaster struck Kuntari Lagaphali, Kuntari Lagasarpani, Sera and Dhurma, Dhami told reporters after reviewing the situation.
"Thirty-three houses, several shops and cowsheds were destroyed by the debris in four villages -- Kuntari Lagaphali, Kuntari Lagasarpani, Sera and Dhurma -- following heavy rain. Fourteen people are missing and around 20 have been injured," he said.
More than 200 people have been affected in the rain-related incidents, he added.
Around 150 to 200 villagers in Kuntari Lagaphalki have been moved to safe places, the SEOC said, adding that search-and-rescue operations are being conducted by the NDRF, SDRF, ITBP, police and fire brigade personnel in the villages under the supervision of the district magistrate and superintendent of police.
Those seriously injured, including a child who sustained head injuries, are being airlifted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Rishikesh, Dhami said.
The chief minister took stock of the situation in Nandanagar by speaking to Chamoli District Magistrate (DM) Sandeep Tiwari via video-conferencing and asked him to accelerate the relief-and-rescue operations in the affected areas.
He directed officials to ensure immediate restoration of roads, drinking water supply, electricity and network connectivity in the areas affected by rain. Adequate arrangements should be made for shelter, food, clean drinking water and other essential amenities for the disaster-hit people, Dhami said.
Doctors and medicines should be made available in the affected areas to ensure prompt medical assistance, he said.
In the Mokh valley area, heavy rain triggered flooding in the Moksha river, causing erosion in it from Dhurma to Sera, damaging dozens of buildings, including at least six houses, according to officials.
Tiwari said at least eight people, including four members of a family, are missing in Kuntari Lagaphali, where the landslide hit about half-a-dozen houses. At least two persons are missing in Dhurma, where the raging waters of the Moksha river have damaged multiple buildings, the DM said.
The access road to Nandanagar has been blocked by debris, he added.
The details of all those missing are awaited. They may be trapped under the rubble of the damaged buildings, the officials said.
A resident of Kuntari Lagaphali and the vice-president of the district branch of the Indian Red Cross, Nandan Singh, who is involved in the relief-and-rescue operations, said the swamp is hampering the rescue operations.
Torrents of mud and boulders rolled down from the hills at three locations in Kuntari Lagaphali, destroying everything on their way, he added.
When the landslide hit the houses, some of the people inside managed to escape, Singh said, adding that they sustained injuries.
Land subsidence hit parts of Nandanagar in August, with cracks appearing in the walls of many houses. Their residents were shifted to safe locations.
The landslides hit two days after heavy rain and cloudbursts in Dehradun and nearby areas breached several roads, washed away bridges and damaged houses, killing 21 people and leaving 17 missing.
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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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