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Odisha e-Assembly
Bhubaneswar: The contentious Odisha Universities (amendment) Bill, 2020 will be introduced in the assembly for discussion on Wednesday by higher education minister Arun Sahoo amid protests from opposition Congress and BJP.
The opposition members have alleged that the legislation will take away the autonomy of state-run varsities and lead to excessive government interference.
Senior Congress leader Tara Prasad Bahinipati also tore a copy of the bill in the house on Tuesday. He demanded the bill to be sent to a select committee before it was tabled for a consideration.
The BJP has also strongly opposed the bill. BJP MLA Pradipta Nayak said that the bill will ruin the autonomy and uniqueness of the varsities in the state. “The state government is trying to take control of the state-run universities through this bill,” he alleged.
He also raised question marks over the employment process in the varsities.
However education minister Sahoo sought to dismiss the charges of the opposition that the bill will reduce the autonomy of the universities.
“I want to clarify that the bill will rather increase the autonomy of the universities. We need one legislation to run all the universities in the state and they will run according to one University Act,” stated Sahoo.