Belagavi: Bill to upgrade, accord autonomy to UVCE introduced in Assembly

Belagavi: The Karnataka government introduced three bills including the AYUSH University Bill and University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering Bill in the State assembly on Thursday.

The AYUSH University at Shivamogga is aimed at developing a university of excellence in the areas of Ayurveda, Yoga, Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, Sowa Rigpa and Homoeopathy systems of medicine.

The objective is to meet the ever increasing complexity of growth and development in the field of alternative way of treatment to set a standard to perform multiple functions in academics, research, consultancy, think-tank, training and knowledge dissemination, the government said.

There is an approximate expenditure of Rs 20 crore by utilising the existing facilities in the AYUSH College and hence there is no extra expenditure involved at this stage, the government said.

Regarding the UVCE in Bengaluru, the government said it was a premier engineering institution in India, established in 1917 by Bharat Ratna awardee Sir M Visvesvaraya.

The Karnataka government said it thought to upgrade it and grant autonomy "with a view to empower the institution to attain standards of global excellence in engineering and allied areas of knowledge. There is no extra expenditure involved in the proposed legislative measure at this stage," the government said in its financial memorandum.

The government also introduced the Karnataka State Civil Services (Regulation of Transfer of Teachers) (Second Amendment) Bill.

The bill was brought to ensure transparency and equitable opportunities in transfers of principals or lecturers of pre-university colleges and ensure availability of lecturers in rural areas, the government said in the statement of objects and reasons.

It further said that the bill intends to streamline the process of transfer and posting of lecturers, bring rationalisation of posts and redeployment process at regular intervals to maintain the standard teacher-pupil ratio and student-lecturer ratio.