Mandya: Bodies of lovers found in river; ‘honour killing’ suspected
Mandya, November 16: The bodies of a newly married couple found in Cauvery river separately near Shivanasamudra in Malavalli taluk. Police suspected that the couple might have been killed by the family members of the lady as it was an inter-caste marriage.
Last Wednesday, the body of a youth aged around 26 years was found in the Cauvery river near Shivanasamudra. When the Belakavadi police rushed and fished out the body, it was found that the youth was tied with the ropes and killed him by throwing him into the river. Close on the heels of this incident, the body of the woman was also found at the same spot and she was also tied with the ropes. Since they were lovers, they might have been killed by the family members, police suspected.
When the police investigated the incident, they found that both man and woman – named Nandeesh (26) and Swathi (19)- were from Chudagoundanahalli in Hosuru taluk in Tamil Nadu. But they were from different castes. Nandeesh who was working in a hardware company and Swathi who was studying her second B Com, were loving each other for the last two years. But the family members of the girl were strongly opposed their love affair. The family members of the girl quarreled with the father of the boy. After this incident, Swathi went out of her home saying that she would bring TC from Krishnagiri college and did not return home. But she has gone with Nandeesh and stayed at his house. Both of them married recently, police said.
Later, they were in unknown place. But a relative of Swathi noticed her when she had been to a programme at Hosur on November 10 and informed her parents. Her father and four others met the couple and forced them to come along with them to the police station and compromise there. They brought them in a car to the bank of Cauvery river near Shivanasamudra through NICE road at around 3 am. After alighting them from the car, they were thrashed black and blue. Later, the accused tied Nandeesh with ropes and dumped in the river. Later, Swathi was also assaulted, tied her legs and hands and dumped in the river, police said.
Belakavadi police registered a case against five persons including Swathi’s father and her uncle. They traced the whereabouts of the accused and they might arrest the accused by tomorrow, it is 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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