Bengaluru (PTI): Congress leader Rahul Gandhi will address party rallies in Bhalki and Humnabad in Bidar district on Monday, ahead of the May 10 Assembly polls in Karnataka.

Several senior Congress leaders, including AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC President D K Shivakumar, are expected to participate in the rally.

Former Minister and KPCC Working President Eshwar Khandre and former Minister Rajashekar B Patil are sitting MLAs and the party's candidates from Bhalki and Humnabad Assembly segments respectively.

Gandhi on Sunday had addressed the 'Jai Bharat' rally in Kolar, the same place from where he made a remark on the Modi surname for which he was convicted of criminal defamation and also stripped of his Parliament membership.

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New Delhi (PTI): A Bill which seeks to set up a single regulator for institutions of higher education is required to facilitate universities and other higher educational institutes become independent and self-governing, officials said.

The Bill is likely to be introduced in Parliament next week after it got the Union Cabinet's nod on Friday.

The proposed legislation, which was earlier christened the Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill, has now been named Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhikshan Bill.

A single higher education regulator, which was proposed in the new National Education Policy (NEP), looks to replace the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE).

"The Bill proposes to set up a Higher Education Commission of India to facilitate universities and other higher educational institutes become independent and self-governing institutions and to promote excellence through a robust and transparent system of accreditation and autonomy. It is likely to be introduced (in Parliament) in the coming week," an official said.

While the UGC presently oversees non-technical higher education in the country, the AICTE oversees technical education, while the NCTE is the regulatory body for teachers' education.

The Commission is proposed to be set up as a single higher education regulator, but medical and law colleges will not be brought under its ambit.

It is proposed to have three major roles -- regulation, accreditation and setting professional standards, officials said.

Funding, which is seen as the fourth vertical, is not proposed to be under the regulator so far. The autonomy for funding is proposed to be with the administrative ministry, they said.