It seems to be all talk and no action with the much awaited trifurcation of Bangalore University going nowhere. Despite the State cabinet giving its nod for the trifurcation in March last year, the two new universities will come up only in the 2017-2018 academic year.
On paper, the unwieldy BU has already been split into three. But no concrete effort has been made to make the other two universities functional. Apart from appointing two special officers, issuing an official gazette notification regarding the trifurcation in December last and giving them a driver and a car, not a rupee has been allocated towards the effort.
Higher Education Minister Basavaraj Rayareddy said that the three new universities will be fully functional from next academic year. “I will shortly convene a meeting regarding how to plan the trifurcation of the university. This topic is one of my priorities and I will ensure that funds for the new varsities are allocated in August,” he said. BU sources pointed out that while the two special officers — S. Japhet of Bengaluru Central University and T. D. Kemparaju of Bengaluru North University— will chalk out a plan, they will not disturb the functioning of the parent Bangalore University. “There are several logistics that need to be worked out, including conducting a survey of the land for the three universities, listing out the departments in the university, chalking out the list of faculty members with these universities as well official transfer of land and labs,” a source said.
Although the Additional Chief Secretary has written to the Chikkaballapur Deputy Commissioner to allocate 200 acres of government land to set up Bengaluru North University, the logistics are still yet to be finalised. Ananth Naik of the Students Federation of India said that the Central College campus was completely neglected and no development work, including repair of roads, was taking place within the university. “The academic year has already commenced for undergraduate programmes and the postgraduate admissions will take place shortly. Students are still in a dilemma as to which departments will function where and which professors will teach on which campus. The State government needs to intervene in the interest of students,” he said.
