Protest campaign led by Ivan D’Souza against fuel price hike
Mangaluru, September 7: A protest campaign will be held under the leadership of MLC Ivan D’Souza against the fuel price hike.
Releasing the pamphlets on the campaign to be held in association with various organizations here on Friday, D’Souza said that an awareness jatha would be taken out from Urva market to other places in the city.
Urging the centre to bring petroleum products under GST, he said that the centre has failed to contain the price hike of fuel products and allowed the corporate companies to loot the country. Though the crude oil prices were reduced in the international market, the prices of petrol, diesel and gas have skyrocketed. During 2014, the crude oil price was 108.26 dollars per barrel and then the maximum petrol price was just Rs 65. Now, one barrel of crude oil would cost 63 dollars and the petrol price has gone up to Rs 81.63. The people have paid the tax for the last four years, but the centre has not divulged the information about its utilization. The gas cylinder price was gone from Rs 400 in 2014 to Rs 813 in 2018. After Modi became the Prime Minister, central excise tax was increased 12 times. According to statistics, the centre has been exporting petrol for 15 countries at Rs 34 per litre, and diesel for 27 countries at Rs 37 per litre. The centre should answer it, he demanded.
As part of the campaign, awareness programmes would be held in different places for two days. On September 8 at 4 pm, the programme would be held at Hampankatta in which 28 different organizations would participate. On September 10, a protest march would be taken from Hampankatta to the deputy commissioner’s office and would hold a convention, he said.
Awareness meetings
Today at 5 pm, the awareness meeting would be held at Urva Market, Urva Auto stand at 6 pm, Kudroli Jodupalli at 7 pm, Bandaru police station at 8 pm, Kandakpete at 8:30 pm.
On September 8 at 6 pm, railway station near Kudroli Circle, KMC Attavar at 7 pm, Mahakali Padpu at 8pm, Valencia Circle at 8.30 pm, Kankanady Maidan at 9 pm.
Leaders of various organizations Dayanand Kotian, Nagendra Kumar, advocate Dinakar Shetty, Punith Shetty and others were present.
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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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