With eye on polls, Modi reviews schemes with BJP CMs
New Delhi, Aug 28 : Preparing for the upcoming Lok Sabha polls and Assembly elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday took stock of the implementation of the various welfare schemes with Chief Ministers and Deputy Chief Ministers of 15 states, who took a pledge to ensure that he comes back to power with a bigger majority in Parliament.
In a day-long meeting of the BJP Chief Ministers' Council here at the party headquarters, chaired by President Amit Shah, the Chief Ministers said the party will face the people in the next Lok Sabha polls on the issues of the implementation of the development programmes it has initiated and also on the promises it made in the 2014 election manifesto.
"The Prime Minister took stock of the work done by the states and also discussed the situation in the states in the wake of the Center's initiative on higher MSP (minimum support price) for farmers, passage of OBC Commission Bill giving it a constitutional status, restoration of provisions of SC/ST Act, the National Register of Citizens in Assam and the Citizens Amendment Bill," Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh told a press conference.
"We resolved that the BJP, under Narendra Modi, will form a majority government again in 2019 by increasing its Lok Sabha tally of 2014," he said, adding they were confident of winning the Assembly polls in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh.
taking a dig at the Congress for its plans to form a grand alliance with regional parties to defeat Modi in 2014, Singh said that it was too early to comment as they have not yet decided their leader.
"They have not yet decided the criteria for selection of the Prime Ministerial candidate. One party says the candidate will be of the party that wins maximum seats while other says that the candidate would be of the largest party. I think they won't be able to decide the issue till the elections. It is only Narendra Modi who will be the Prime Minister in 2019," he said.
He said how the pace of implementation of Centre's schemes like Ujjawal, Saubhagya, Aawas, Swachha Bharat and others need to be increased was also discussed at the meet.
Singh said the Prime Minister and the BJP President gave valuable suggestions to the Chief Ministers of the three party-ruled states on winning the coming elections. The Chief Ministers presented a report on the situation in their states.
The meeting also discussed plans to reach out to the beneficiaries of the Centre's welfare schemes.
The BJP has 15 Chief Ministers and seven Deputy Chief Ministers -- two in Uttar Pradesh and one each in Gujarat, Bihar, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura.
The Council meeting has been an annual affair since 2014.
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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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