House passes Dhanamanjuri University Bill

IMPHAL | Aug 3

The House passed the Dhanamanjuri University Bill, 2017 today. The Bill was moved by education minister Th. Radheshyam. He said that after having a thorough discussion, the State Cabinet on July 28 decided to introduce the Bill during the ongoing Assembly session.

The minister said that the proposal of the Bill is to set up a Cluster University comprising 5 institutions viz, Dhanamanjuri College of Science, Dhanamanjuri College of Arts, Dhanamanjuri College of Commerce, LMS Law College and GP Women’s College, which occupy common, adjoining or neighbouring physical spaces.

He added that the proposal was put up before the Project Approval Board (PAB) of Rashtriya Uchchatar Shiksha Abhiyan (RUSA) on May 13, 2013 and it was approved in 2014.

The existing assets and liabilities, all properties both movable and immovable including land, buildings thereupon, infrastructure etc. along with the rights of all these institutes shall be transferred to Dhanamanjuri University.

The minister continued that the earlier Dhanamanjuri University Bill, 2016 was approved by the Cabinet in its sitting held on August 26, 2016. The draft Bill was introduced on September 2, 2016 and passed on September 5, 2016 by the Manipur Legislative Assembly.

However, the governor withheld her assent on April 4, 2017 as the Bill needed some additions and corrections, he added.

As such, the Bill was introduced afresh after making these necessary additions and corrections, he said.

Further he said that as per RUSA guidelines a Cluster University must consist of three to five colleges in other parts of the country and two to three colleges in the Northeast region.

However, he pressed the Union HRD Ministry under the guidance of chief minister N. Biren to increase the number of cluster colleges for Manipur from three to five as a special case.

The minister cautioned that the time given to the State for establishing the varsity under RUSA scheme would lapse if the Bill is not passed during the ongoing Assembly session as three precious years had already been wasted by the State government in the past.

He said that necessary additions and rectifications can always be made later after the University becomes an asset of the State.

Congress MLAs Kh. Joykisan and Surjakumar Okram also took part in the discussion of the Bill.