The Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill 2009 to bifurcate the Central University in Jammu and Kashmir to cater for both regions of the State.
With this, the Bill has got Parliament’s approval as it was already passed by the Lok Sabha.
During the debate, some members alleged that there was a political motive behind bifurcation, which would lead to similar demands in other regions of the country.
However, Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal clarified that the Centre would not set up a university on the basis of regionalism. “Jammu and Kashmir has some peculiarity for which the Centre decided to have two universities in both regions. We have already decided to set up one Central University in each State to remove regional imbalance.”
Mr. Sibal said setting up Central universities was part of the Congress-led UPA government’s plans to expand the higher education system as enrolment was likely to go up from 2.6 crore to 6.6 crore in the next few years.
