The Forum for Development of North Andhra (FDNA), Visakhapatnam has written a letter to Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, the Minister of Human Resource Development (Government of India). This was with regards to establishing the Central Tribal University of Andhra Pradesh (CTUAP) and to make provisions for additional reservations for tribal students.
The Lok Sabha (Lower House of the Parliament of India) had passed a bill, to amend the Central Universities Act, for establishing a Central Tribal University as per the AP State Reorganisation Act, 2014. The Andhra Pradesh State Government had acquired land, at Kothavalasa in Vizianagaram District five years ago for the same. A central expert team had also approved all the technical matters.
However, the Central Government has taken more than five years to pass a Bill for establishing the obligatory Central Tribal University. Now, it has to be passed by the Rajya Sabha (Upper House of the Parliament of India) and get the assent of President of India in order to have it implemented. The primary issue, as per FDNA’s letter, is that although the government had announced that a budget has been sanctioned for the construction of the buildings, not a single rupee has been spent so far. Additionally, Andhra University had been appointed as the mentoring body and had announced that classes were be commenced from this academic year. However, this has not been done and even the notification, for admissions, has not been given till date.
FDNA also pointed out that currently there is no provision, in the Bill, for additional reservations for tribal students. Like this, the Bill will not be beneficial to the tribal community and the very purpose of CTUAP is defeated.
The FDNA letter also included the following requests as progressive measures related to the Bill:
- Make a provision in the bill that at least 50% of seats are allotted to tribal students.
- Take necessary steps to get the Act to come in force immediately.
- Appoint a full-time Vice-Chancellor, permanent teaching, and non-teaching, staff so that work will progress uninterruptedly, without any further delay.
- Allot sufficient funds for speedy completion of construction and staff expenses.
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