Bhubaneswar, Aug 13: Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has written a letter to Odisha Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi seeking rectification of the discrepancies in the Odisha University (Amendment) Act 2020 brought by the previous BJD government.

The Union Minister stated that this amendment was important to restore confidence among educators, safeguard autonomy of educational institutions and ensure that the State maintains the highest standards of education.

The Naveen Patnaik government had earlier amended the original Act, which not only created conflict in the provisions of the UGC Act but also diluted the interest of educational institutions and their autonomy, Pradhan alleged.

The Union Minister claimed that the previous government had taken steps to curtail the autonomy of Odisha’s educational institutions.

Pradhan urged the Chief Minister to amend the Act, as per the legal and regulatory framework.

This amendment is important to restore confidence among educationists, safeguard the autonomy of educational institutions and ensure that Odisha maintains the highest standards of education, he said.

The previous BJD government had enacted the Odisha University (Amendment) Act bringing many extensive amendments to the original Act of 1989.

The specific provisions contained in the Universities (Amendment) Act regarding selection of Chancellors, recruitment of teaching staff in universities are not only inconsistent with these regulations of UGC but ignore judicial directives laid down by the Supreme Court, Pradhan further said.

Therefore, the efforts made by the previous government to undermine the credibility of the educationists and educational institutions of the state should be reconsidered immediately, he added.

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