Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said that the government would not hesitate to release funds for the activities of the study chairs in universities provided the chairs engage in creative activities in academics.
He was speaking after inaugurating the Brahmashree Narayana Guru Study Chair at Mangalore University here. Referring to writer Baragur Ramachandrappa’s statement that a majority of study chairs in universities have become “Baddi Peethas”, meaning surviving on interest money from the corpus, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that the government would support creative chairs.
The Chief Minister referred to Higher Education Minister Basavaraja Rayaraddi’s statement that Mangalore University stands first among all State universities. “What Mr. Rayaraddi meant was the university has the least defects compared to others,” he said. Mr. Rayaraddi had on Tuesday stated that financial irregularities to a tune of ₹ 500 crore were detected in 17 universities in the State.
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On the contributions of Narayana Guru, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that educational institutions should strive to inculcate scientific temperament among students. “I would not say one should shun religion; but one should think rationally and correct social evils,” he said.
Stating that untouchability was a “mental disorder”, Mr. Siddaramaiah said that it could be treated only through a changed mindset. Narayana Guru waged a war against the caste system, not aggressively, but rationally. He was able to bring in a lot of social changes, the Chief Minister said.
Speaking earlier, Mr. Rayaraddi, who welcomed Mangalore University’s move to set up the study chair in the name of Narayana Guru, said that caste system has divided society from time immemorial. He said that Mr. Siddaramaiah with his social reforms and orientation too is a social reformer. Commending Mangalore University for its achievements, the Minister said that the university should strive to achieve further excellence.
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Baragur Ramachandrappa congratulated Mr. Siddaramaiah for sanctioning Rs. 19 crore for bulk procurement of books for State libraries during the recent Cabinet meeting. He also urged the government to provide annual grants to study chairs in universities instead of forcing them to depend on interest amount of the corpus funds.
On the occasion, 19 works brought out by the Publication Division of the university were released. Also, Mr. Rayaraddi inaugurated a modular laboratory of the university, while Mr. Siddaramaiah inaugurated the new building of the Applied Botany Department. District in-charge Minister B. Ramanath Rai, the former Minister Vinay Kumar Sorake, Vice-Chancellor K. Byrappa, Registrar K.M. Lokesh, the former Kannada University Vice-Chancellor B.A. Vivek Rai and others were present.