BC Road Commuters, Auto-Drivers in tizzy as police department suspends buses on service road
Bantwal: Local police has imposed ban on Government and Private buses from commuting on the service road in Bantwal, calling for protests and criticism from Passengers and Auto-Drivers.
The local police on March 12 had instructed the bus drivers without any prior notice to not commute through service road. The move had caused confusion and anguish among the locals for the sudden role out of the order.
The order had asked the bus drivers to commute through the fly-over and not through service road. The earlier route of the buses was through the service road towards private bus stand. However, the order issued by police instructed the drivers to commute through fly-over and halt near KSRTC bus stop.
Meanwhile, the auto-rickshaw drivers had also protested over the order claiming that it will impact their passenger count. PSI Sudhakar who was handling the matter had promised to provide three auto-rickshaw stands near the KSRTC bus stop.
Inconvenience to commuters:
The move had led to causing inconvenience to the commuters who earlier used to get down at service road/ private bus junction and would take auto to visit different vicinities and landmarks including court, police station, MESCOM, Agriculture, Horticulture department and other. The move will require them to get down on either of the two ends of the fly-over and walk towards their respective destinations.
Additional SP, Saidul Adavath, speaking on the matter added that the protests from the auto-drivers will be sorted through negotiations and separate auto-rickshaw stands will be provided near the KSRTC bus stand. He said the department will soon find solutions to the problems being faced by auto-drivers.
Shamsuddin, Auto-Driver’s union Vice President, added that the promises made by the police department should be fulfilled at the earliest failing which the union will protest against it.
“The public is not happy with the order, senior police officials don’t know our ordeal while they take decisions sitting in their offices. There was no problem in buses running on service road. It was helpful for us. The department should immediately revoke the order” Vasanth Kumar, a daily commuter of the bus on BC Road said.
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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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