Ex-duta head urges Gujarat governor to reject education bill

Former Duta president Aditya Narayan Misra on Saturday wrote a letter of appeal to Gujarat governor O.P. Kohli for turning down the recently passed Gujarat State Higher Education Council (GSHEC) Bill 2016.

In a press statement issued by Duta, it said, “The GSHEC bill was passed on the last day of the Budget Session of the legislative assembly. This legislation will result in completely destroying the independence of the universities upon which largely depends their efficiency and usefulness. The threat is turning them practically into departments of government. The senate and syndicate/academic council and executive council become redundant before the proposed higher education council. With such a council, government instructions will directly structure, control and run the universities.”

While criticising this legislation for choking all new innovations and ideas by having a common syllabus, it said, “This process of stifling control has started with the Gujarat government identifying 82 topics on which the universities would undertake Ph.D. research.”