BHUBANESWAR: The Cabinet on Tuesday approved a proposal for amendment of the Biju Patnaik University of Technology Act, 2002 to ensure smooth functioning of the technical university and academic excellence.
The Cabinet meeting, presided over by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, approved 27 proposals including the amendment to the Act which proposes to redefine the term ‘constituent college’ in the BPUT Act to bring the engineering colleges under their respective autonomous Board of Governors for proper administration.
Besides, in order to bring uniformity with State universities, the amendment also proposes to fix the term of the office of the Vice-Chancellor at four years instead of the current five years. It has been proposed that a committee consisting of three members headed by a professor will be constituted by the Vice-Chancellor to finalise disciplinary action against students of BPUT as and when required. The Vice-Chancellor will act as appellate authority against the orders of the disciplinary committee.
The chancellor/vice-chancellor will constitute selection committee for recruitment of teaching/non-teaching posts of University with the prior approval of the government. Officers belonging to the Odisha Administrative Service and Odisha Finance Service not below the rank of joint secretary will be appointed as registrar and finance officer of the University respectively.
The Cabinet also approved a proposal to implementing ‘Rejuvenating Watersheds for Agricultural Resilience through Innovative Development (REWARD)’ project envisaging an expenditure of Rs 500 crore on science based management for six years starting from April, 2021. The World Bank will provide a loan assistance of Rs 350 crore for implementation of the project.
A proposal to implement a single rule for recruitment and promotion of all ranks of government college teachers of higher education department starting from the entry rank of assistant professor to the highest rank of professor was approved at the meeting.
The Cabinet also approved the cabinet sub-committee on disinvestment reconstituted by the Chief Minister to deal with privatisation and disinvestment of public and cooperative enterprises. The sub-committee headed by the Finance Minister will have law, industries and public enterprises ministers as members.
Besides, proposal to waive arrear tax cases upto Rs 5,000 each case except for six goods, petrol, diesel, ATF, natural gas, petroleum crude oil and liquor for human consumption was approved. The waiver for 34,332 tax cases will be Rs 4.67 crore.
AMENDMENTS