Wednesday, January 4, 2017

Nitish Kumar Urges Centre to Maintain the Autonomy of Nalanda University !!

Nalanda University’s chancellor George Yeo had recently resigned from his post, because government had dissolved the previous governing board of the university without taking him into confidence. Regarding this, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar has written a 2 page letter to External Affairs Minister Mrs. Sushma Swaraj, stating that the NDA government should not change the motive behind the idea of establishing the new Nalanda. Bihar CM Nitish Kumar was not happy with this step and said that center needs to consult with all the members of distinguished academicians and stakeholders before taking such a decision.

Nitish Kumar said that Centre should keep in mind that how state government has decided to recreate the Nalanda university fame as it was in the ancient times and establish a new Nalanda university in Bihar.

In 2007 Bihar government enacted a state law on Nalanda University and requested the Central government to take control of the university.  “In 2010 when Central Act on Nalanda University was passed, all powers were transferred to central government”,   stated Nitish Kumar.

George yeo stated that central government is interfering and affecting the autonomy of the university.  When the decision of dissolving the previous governing board was taken he was not informed about it.  According to Nitish, such an important decision was taken without informing the chancellor, raising a question on the autonomous behavior of the university.

On 25th November, George yeo submitted his resignation letter to the president Pranab Mukherjee, when NDA government decided to cancel the extension of time tenure of the vice chancellor Gopa Sabharwal.

Nitish, stated in his letter, that provisions concerned with the formulation of the governing body in the Nalanda University Act, 2010, were flawed and the central government wanted to amend the Act. "Therefore, the centre had requested the 'Nalanda Mentor Group' to continue functioning as the 'governing board' till the said Act could be amended. So far, there has been no amendment in the Act and yet a new governing body has been constituted by the centre without due consultation. This has affected the prestige and credibility of the university," Bihar CM said.
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