HECI Bill not to be moved in ongoing session
NEW DELHI: Amid rising political opposition to replacing UGC with a new Higher Education Commission, the Union government is learnt to have dropped plans to pilot the ambitious Higher Education Commission of India (HECI) Bill in Parliament in the ongoing Monsoon session.
The Prakash Javadekar-led Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry was pushing to get the Bill introduced in Lok Sabha in this session and was readying it for Cabinet approval but the PMO is learnt to have ruled against it, citing strong political opposition which is bound to make Parliamentary passage rather tricky.
If the HECI Bill misses the Monsoon session window, its chances will dim significantly as the only opening for its passage will be in the Winter Session which is likely to be too politically packed to make way for a new radical legislation like HECI
All-Round attack
The change comes within days of CPM’s Sitaram Yechury shooting off a strong letter to the Prime Minister opposing HECI. All other parties have already made their position known on the Bill and it is mostly unfavourable.
The Congress was quick to slam the move and both DMK’s working president M K Stalin as well as AIADMK’s M Thambidurai have also spoken out against the Bill, saying it would undermine the federal structure. A similar view has been echoed by the Kerala chief minister Pinarayai Vijayan.
The Prakash Javadekar-led Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry was pushing to get the Bill introduced in Lok Sabha in this session and was readying it for Cabinet approval but the PMO is learnt to have ruled against it, citing strong political opposition which is bound to make Parliamentary passage rather tricky.
If the HECI Bill misses the Monsoon session window, its chances will dim significantly as the only opening for its passage will be in the Winter Session which is likely to be too politically packed to make way for a new radical legislation like HECI
All-Round attack
The change comes within days of CPM’s Sitaram Yechury shooting off a strong letter to the Prime Minister opposing HECI. All other parties have already made their position known on the Bill and it is mostly unfavourable.
The Congress was quick to slam the move and both DMK’s working president M K Stalin as well as AIADMK’s M Thambidurai have also spoken out against the Bill, saying it would undermine the federal structure. A similar view has been echoed by the Kerala chief minister Pinarayai Vijayan.