Coalition government is not alive: Jagadish Shettar
Bengaluru, November 23: “As the coalition government is economically bankrupt, the administration has completely collapsed. Even after six months of coming to power, this government is not existed. It is dead”, said former chief minister Jagadish Shettar.
Speaking to reporters at the office of the Opposition Leader at Vidhana Soudha here on Friday, he said that the government has no money to give pension to the employees. The bills worth Rs 6,000 crore were pending. It has not waived off Rs 46,000 crore farm loan as the state exchequer was empty, he said.
MLA Fund of Rs 2 crore should be released annually. But till date, the government has released just Rs 50 lakh. The development works were suspended. The government has no concerns towards the people, he alleged.
Not in a position to receive criticism
The Chief Minister was not in a position to receive the criticism in a sportive spirit. Opposition parties and media were not there to praise the Chief Minister. The Cooperative Minister has said that the government would collect the data of farm loan waiver beneficiaries. How long the government would take to do that work, he asked.
The state government has created a situation that sugarcane farmers have come to the streets. It was not fair to speak lightly on farmers who broke the lock of the gate during the protest. The government should solve the farmers problems first, he demanded.
Development is victim for prestige
For the individual prestige of Hassan, the government has been misusing the public tax money. The compromise politics of the coalition partners has been killing the development of the state, former minister CT Ravi blasted Minister HD Revanna.
The best example for such development was the government has released Rs 58 crore for establishing an engineering college at Mosale Hosahalli in Hassan. Though there were five engineering colleges including a government engineering college, even there was a shortage of students. When the situation was like that, what was the need to sanction another college for the district, he asked.
Publish White Paper
The government should publish a White Paper for the assurances it has made and the development works implemented. The government has not given priority to the drought and flood affected people, he said.
“I have no intention of contesting the forthcoming Lok Sabha election. But if the party asks me to contest for strengthening the party, I am ready to contest against former prime minister HD Deve Gowda from Hassan Lok Sabha constituency”.
- CT Ravi, BJP Leader
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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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