BENGALURU: The state government may be pushing for the Anti-Superstition Bill and the Chief Minister may be all set to ban astrology-related programmes in the electronic media. But this has not stopped the government from asking for a vaastu plan ahead of the construction of the new Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) campus in Ramanagaram.
At a recent meeting chaired by the chief minister to discuss the construction of the new campus, the Medical Education Department was asked to present the matter to the Cabinet along with a vaastu plan.
A copy of the proceedings, available with Express, states, “As per the present schedule rates of the Public Works Department, present the matter before the Cabinet along with a vaastu plan and blueprint.”
The project will cost `580 crore, which will be taken from university funds, despite opposition from RGUHS authorities.
Janus-faced Govt?: Academics feel this move shows the government’s double standards. A senior professor at Bangalore University said, “The chief minister says he is trying his best to bring in the Anti-Superstition Bill. But on the other hand, at a meeting chaired by him, officials have been directed to submit a vaastu plan. There is a lot of difference between blueprint and vaastu plan.”
Prof M S Thimmappa, former vice-chancellor of Bangalore University, said, “How can the state government ask for vaastu plan when it is trying to bring a bill on curbing superstition?”
Rationalist Narendra Nayak said a medical institute supporting quackery in the form of vaastu was condemnable. “They should build it based on science rather than vaastu,” he said. “I fail to understand how a chief minister, who claims to believe in scientific temper, would support this.”