BELAGAVI: The Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University (Amendment) Bill 2024 was passed in the legislative assembly on Tuesday amidst opposition from the JDS and BJP members, who staged a walkout stating that it was politically motivated and exposes the hate politics against the Governor of the state who is Chancellor of the Universities of the state.
The Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University (Amendment) Bill 2024 has been passed in the assembly at Belagavi. The bill proposes certain changes to bring in reforms in development and proposes to replace the Chief Minister as a Chancellor of the varsity instead of the Governor.
This bill makes the Gadag-based varsity, the first one in the state where the Chancellor will be the Chief Minister instead of the Governor.
Minister for RDPR, Priyank Kharge while introducing the bill said that this aims to bring in ‘minor changes’ in the Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University Act 2016, which will be known as Karnataka State Rural Development and Panchayat Raj University Act 2024.
The bill proposes amendment of Section 2 (r-a)- the term State Government, which refers to the Minister in charge of the Department of RDPR.
In Section 13 of the act (sub section (1)) the Governor shall be substituted by the words ‘the Chief Minister.’
In section 15 (2) of the Act, the search committee shall submit to the Principal Secretary RDPR, a panel of 3 persons possessing high-level of competence, integrity, morals and institutional commitment with 10 years of experience as a professor in a university and sufficient experience of working the RDPR sector.
The bill seeks to replace the Governor with the Chief Minister "for better administration and functioning", said Kharge.
BJP MLA C N Ashwath Narayan said this was not a progressive bill and appealed to the Congress government to avoid confrontation with the Raj Bhavan, “The bill takes away the deemed status of the University. It is against its growth. Please withdraw it. Removing the governor is not good,” he said.
MLA Araga Jnanendra requested the government to revisit its decision.
Shivamogga MLA S N Channabasappa alleged that this move reflects the mindset of hatred of the ruling party. “This bill is politically motivated. You want to curtail the powers of the Governor,” he said.
Leader of the opposition R Ashoka said that this bill will further widen the ‘already existing gap’ between the Governor and the State Government. “There is no reason mentioned in the bill to replace the Governor with the Chief Minister as the chancellor.
However, Minister Priyank Kharge dismissed the allegations, "This bill is not politically motivated. This is for the better administration, coordination and smooth functioning of the varsity. There is no law in the country that says only the governor should be the Chancellor of a university,” he said.
He pointed out that there are many universities in the country where the Chief Ministers are the Chancellors. When Speaker U T Khader put the bill up for voting, the members of the opposition who were not convinced with the explanation, staged a walkout as a mark of protest.