Government to amend Odisha Universities (Amendment) Act soon

The Odisha Government has made a decision to amend the Odisha University (Amendment)Act 2020 , which was brought by the previous BJD government, the higher education minister Suryavanshi Suraj shared in the state assembly on Friday. 

While replying to the issue asked from BJD legislator Ganeswar Behera, the minister replied “As you are seeking rectification in the Act enacted by the BJD government, we will definitely do it.”  Adding to which , Suraj said that Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan had written a letter to the Odisha government regarding the same. 

On the appointment of vice-chancellors in public universities at Jeypore and Baripada, the minister told the institutions are functioning under the supervision of officers on special duty for now. 
Once the Odisha University Act is amended, the concerns of appointment of VC along with teaching and non-teaching staff will be resolved.

There wer major amendments in the Odisha University (Amendment) Act to the original act of 1989 by the previous BJD government 

The amendments were related; selection of chancellors and recruitment of teaching staff. The minister said the process of recruitment was deviating from the UGC regulations. 

Aprt from the the intellects ,various MLAs have also raised concerns regarding the nomination of a representative of higher education secretary in the syndicate of the university claiming , it diluted the autonomy of the public universities.

There are 30 districts in Odisha , there is no government degree college in Jharsuguda ,Kendrapara and Jagatsinghpur district. On the same issue , Suraj said , “I assure you all that we will set up colleges in these districts which the previous BJD government was not able to do during its 25 years of rule.” 

In a written reply to the House, the Higher Education minister informed that the state government is not going to make any budgetary provision from the current financial year for the ‘Nutana Unnata Abhilasha, Odisha’ (NUA-O) scholarship scheme for college students, which was launched by the previous BJD government. 

All the amendments aim to take steps to alogh the policies and principles with the National Education Policy (NEP)