Two private university Bills approved in Assembly

MP, 10 Dec 2024 11:37 PM Kolkata: The state Legislative Assembly on Tuesday approved two private university Bills in the state — ‘The Rabindranath Tagore University’ in Dhaniakhali, Hooghly and ‘The Ramakrishna Paramhansa University’ in Agarpara, North 24-Parganas. 

“Bengal with 31 state universities figures among the top of state-run varsities in the country with Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Gujarat far behind. 

The inclusion of these two private universities will bring the state’s total to 43. Before 2011, when Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee came to power for the first time in Bengal, there were only 11 universities across the state and all were state sponsored,” Basu said while introducing the Bills in the state Assembly. 

The two Bills introduced by the Higher Education department mandate a 25 per cent reservation for students from the state, a 5 per cent scholarship for financially disadvantaged students and the employment of 50 per cent of non-teaching staff from within the state. 

The Rabindranath Tagore University will be managed and run by Kalipada Saha Memorial Trust and the Ramkrishna Paramhansa university will be promoted by Ramkrishna Vivekananda Mission. 

BJP chief whip Shankar Ghosh said: “There are many universities that don’t have proper infrastructure. Instead of increasing the number of universities, the department should enhance the quality of education.” 

Responding to Ghosh’s concern, Basu retorted that the NEP (National Education Policy) 2020 that has been brought out by the Centre doesn’t have a single word on quality of education which is a glaring example of promotion of higher education by the Centre although the source of funds is in the dark. 

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