For nine years govt did nothing: Congress after passage of bill to set up tribal university in Telangana

With Parliament passing a bill to establish a tribal university in Telangana, the Congress on Wednesday alleged that the government "did nothing for nine years" and "suddenly" Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his election speech in October announced that such a university was to be set up in the state.

Parliament on Wednesday passed a bill to establish the Sammakka Sarakka Central Tribal University in Telangana after a nod from the Rajya Sabha. The upper house passed the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill 2023, by voice vote in the absence of Opposition members who had earlier staged a walk-out to press for their demand for a statement from Union home minister Amit Shah on the security breach in the Lok Sabha.

In a post on X, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, "Today the Rajya Sabha passed the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2023 that provides for a Central Tribal University in Telangana. Item 3 of Schedule 13 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, mandated the establishment of a Central Tribal University in Telangana. For nine years the Modi government did NOTHING!"

"Suddenly on October 1, 2023, in one of his election speeches in the state, the prime minister announced that such a tribal university was going to be created in Telangana," he said.

The Central Tribal University in Telangana will be the 57th Central university, 85 per cent of which was already set up before 2014, Ramesh said. "The very first Central Universities Act was passed in 2009 in which 16 new universities were created. Today's Bill is a simple addition to this Act," he added.

Ramesh claimed that faculty shortages in these central universities are widespread and almost one-third of all faculty positions are vacant. "Drop rates of students, especially those belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and OBCs are also unacceptably high.

"A few days earlier, the Modi government admitted in the Lok Sabha that in the last five years, some 10,000 students from these communities dropped out from Central Universities," the Congress leader said.