Government orders trigger confusion over University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering ownership, Karnataka students in a fix

BENGALURU: The Higher Education Department’s indecisiveness with regard to the ownership of University Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) between Bangalore University and Bengaluru Central University has left students and faculty members in a fix.

Bangalore University has given Rs 5 crore for the renovation of UVCE on the directions of the government. In fact, an earlier government order had said that UVCE comes under BU. However, a recent government order stated that UVCE belongs to Bengaluru Central University, hence creating a lot of confusion over the ownership.

UVCE is the only engineering college under Bangalore University. During the trifurcation of the university, a government committee headed by Prof S A Kori said UVCE will remain with BU. This was also mentioned in the state gazette. Now, violating the gazette, the government has issued another order stating that as per jurisdiction, UVCE comes under Bengaluru Central University.

Interestingly, two big departments of UVCE — civil engineering and architecture — are located at Bangalore University’s Jnana Bharathi campus and the rest are on the KR Road campus. BU has sought time to shift the college to Jnana Bharathi campus and it is also ready to give up the existing building to Bengaluru Cental University.

Bangalore University registrar Prof B K Ravi said, “As per the Kori committee report, which was approved by the Chief Minister, it (UVCE) belongs to us. We have no issue handing over the buildings to the other university, but UVCE will remain with us and we will build a new campus on 100 acres on Jnana Bharathi campus.”

When the previous government laid the foundation stone for the renovation of UVCE blocks in March and released `25 crore as a centennial grant, BU also released `5 crore. This was agreed upon in a syndicate meeting of BU and was according to the direction of the higher education department. This fund has now been transferred to the Public Works Department (PWD) and work is going on in full swing.

Principal secretary to the higher education department Rajkumar Khatri said he is convening a meeting to discuss the issue on Wednesday. “We are having a meeting on June 6 where officials of Bangalore University, Bengaluru Central University, Bengaluru North University and UVCE will be invited,” Khatri said.