The BJP on Thursday accused the Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government of undermining the Governor’s authority to appoint vice-chancellors for state universities. The state Cabinet on Wednesday had passed a proposal to reduce the scope of Governor in appointment of vice-chancellor (V-C) of various universities and also created a post of pro-chancellor for Higher and Technical Education Minister Uday Samant.
Former education minister Ashish Shelar said, “Changes have been made in the Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016, and a new Section 9(A) has been inserted, in which the government has removed the powers vested in the Governor.”
“Earlier, the Governor would set up a committee comprising retired Supreme court judges, prominent academicians, IAS officers from education department and Padma awardees to shortlist candidates for the V-C posts… Now, the government will form a committee to appoint the V-C and also select its members. The committee will suggest two names to the Governor,” said Shelar.
“This simply means that from now on, the vice-chancellors of state universities will be decided in the kitchen cabinet of the Yuva Sena,” he added.
Meanwhile, Shelar urged the BMC to release CCTV camera footage to bring the truth on how many people actually attended the December 8 party at producer-director Karan Johar’s house, leading to four of the invitees, including actors Kareena Kapoor Khan and Amrita Arora, testing positive for Covid-19.
“The BMC officials said there were eight persons at the party… The officials said that they have spoken to those who have tested positive. While Seema Khan (wife of actor Sohail Khan who has tested positive) named a few people, she also omitted some… Then the BMC official said that Kareena Kapoor has also shared a few names. This clearly shows that there is a discrepancy in the numbers,” he said.
“The BMC has said it won’t share the CCTV footage. This raises suspicion,” Shelar added.
