Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah invites KCR to his state to see Congress guarantees being implemented
Hyderabad, Nov 26: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday invited his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao to visit his state to see how the five guarantee schemes of the Congress government have been implemented -- dismissing Rao's allegations that the party did not fulfil its poll promises.
Expressing confidence that the Congress would form the next government in Telangana and implement the six poll guarantees given to the state's people, he said KCR (K Chandrasekhar Rao) is going to lose power in the assembly elections.
Siddaramaiah said he saw media reports about the allegations made by Chandrasekhar Rao, his son K T Rama Rao and some BJP leaders that the Congress government in Karnataka has not implemented the five guarantees it gave to the people ahead of the May assembly polls that it won there.
He said these allegations are being made in view of the elections by the rival parties.
"The allegations made by opposition parties, these are all false allegations. The BRS party is lying and Chandrasekhar Rao is lying. Because he knows that he is going to lose the power (in the assembly elections)," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.
"When I came here earlier (as part of campaigning), I gave an open invitation to Chandrasekhar Rao to come to Karnataka and discuss with us and verify the documents. But, he did not come. Even today I will ask Chandrasekhar Rao: Please come to Karnataka and don't make such allegations unnecessarily for election purposes," Siddaramaiah said.
"You can verify...I don't know why they are telling lies. I can understand if Chandrasekhar Rao makes statement that the guarantees are not being implemented because he is facing the elections -- and for the purpose of elections he is saying lies and his son is also telling lie. I don't know why others are telling lies," he said.
Siddaramaiah said he was sure that the Congress will win the Telangana assembly elections.
"Congress will, 100 per cent, come to power in Telangana and all the six guarantees that have been promised will be implemented. Nobody should doubt it," he said.
On the Congress's five guarantees in Karnataka, he said the first guarantee 'Shakthi' scheme, providing free bus travel for women, wasimplemented in June and it has logged over 100 crore rides recently.
On the 'Anna Bhagya' scheme which was to provide 10 kg rice for free, Siddaramaiah said the Food Corporation of India refused to supply the additional five kg rice under "pressure" from the Centre and hence his government was paying cash instead of the five kg rice promised to each beneficiary through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) since July.
Siddaramaiah further said the 'Gruha Jyothi' scheme, which promises 200 units of free electricity to households, started in July.
Regarding 'Gruha Lakshmi' scheme, which provides Rs 2,000 per month to the women head of the families, he said the scheme started in August and 1.14 crore beneficiaries have been covered so far and registration is continuing.
Siddaramaiah said the fifth guarantee 'Yuva Nidhi' scheme, (Rs 3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and Rs 1,500 for diploma holders) offering unemployment allowances, will commence in January 2024.
These schemes require about Rs 38,000 crore for this year and already budget allocation has been made, he said.
There is no question of cheating the people at all, he said adding that the Congress party never cheated the people. "Whatever promises Congress party made in its manifesto and also the five guarantees, we are implementing and we are going to implement," he said.
He said all the developmental works are also going on and there is no dearth of funds to carry them out.
Dismissing the charge that Karnataka would become bankrupt due to the guarantee schemes, Siddaramaiah said, "The economy of Karnataka is very good and sound and we are implementing all the promises made to the people of Karnataka".
When asked about senior BJP leader and former Karnataka CM B S Yediyurappa's accusation that Congress was deceiving the people by not implementing its five pre-poll guarantees after coming to power, Siddaramaiah said he (Yediyurappa) is "frustrated and making false statements".
Reacting to a comment on reports that Karnataka farmers were staging protests in Telangana, he said, "They are not Karnataka farmers, I know that. No farmer from Karnataka came to Telangana; why will they come and protest here?".
Responding to another query, he said "We have fulfilled five guarantees in the first phase and also 76 promises. A manifesto is always for five years and at once (in one go) we cannot implement all the promises".
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
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.”
_vb_22.jpeg)
