CM Kumaraswamy promises to set up Kodagu Reconstruction Authority
Discussion with affected people
Madikeri, October 17: Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Wednesday assured of taking necessary steps to constitute ‘Kodagu Reconstruction Authority’ to rehabilitate the affected people and reconstruct the entire district which was devastated in the natural disaster.
Participating in a discussion programme with the affected people, at Gandhi Maidan here, the CM said that the government was with the affected people. It was the duty and responsibility of the Coalition government to instill confidence among affected people and ensure permanent solution to their problem besides reconstructing the entire district. The government has already taken steps in this regard. The district minister and elected representatives from the district have demanded setting up of an Authority to reconstruct the damaged areas. Necessary steps would be taken to set up the authority, he said.
The MLAs of the district have appealed to construct houses at Rs 10 lakh each. Already, the government has disbursed Rs 1.03 lakh to each of the family which lost its house. Along with it, Rs 50,000 was being given for materials damage. Since it would take minimum seven to eight months to construct houses for those who lost houses, the government has decided to give Rs 10,000 per month for next ten months. Along with this, the government would spend Rs 6 lakh for construction of a house. Total, Rs 8.53 lakh would be spent for rehabilitating the affected people, he clarified.
Rs 50k to be credited to account
In order to respond to the problems of the affected people on humanitarian ground by keeping aside the NDRF norms, the government has decided to give Rs 50,000 immediate compensation to each of the affected family, for which Rs 6 crore was already released. The amount would be credited to the accounts of the beneficiaries in a couple of days. Now the government would spend Rs 6 lakh for constructing a house and if the beneficiaries came forward to construct the houses on their own along with their amount, they would be allowed to do it. There was no need to be panic. The government was committed to provide security to the family, he said appreciated the efforts of the elected representatives and officials of the district in handling the situation during natural disaster in the district.
Help through loan waiver scheme
Coffee growers and farmers have suffered a lot due to floods and natural disaster in the district. As per the NDRF norms, Rs 17,000 compensation could be given for each hectare. Was it possible to build the life in that amount? Now, the government has planned to extend the loan waiver scheme benefits to the coffee growers and farmers, he promised.
Banks are non-cooperative
If the nationalized banks cooperated with the government, the farmers would have benefitted with the loan waiver scheme. But though the heads of nationalized banks were asked to furnish the details of farm loans two months before, they have not provided the details. The banks have just been doing the work of serving notices. The Cabinet has approved the waiver of loan up to Rs 2 lakh. Even then, the nationalized banks were not cooperating with the government, he said.
Though the people of Kodagu were under distress, unlike other places, the farmers in the district have not taken extreme steps of committing suicide. He would oversee every rehabilitation work. He would also support the revival of tourism and hotel industry in the district, he said and appealed the people to celebrate the Dasara festival forgetting all bad incidents.
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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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