ABVP stages sit-in to demand withdrawal of JK university bill

JAMMU: The Jammu and Kashmir unit of the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on Wednesday staged a demonstration to demand the withdrawal of the Jammu Kashmir Public University Bill, 2022, that, it claimed, eroded the autonomy of universities in the Union Territory.

The administrative council led by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha recently approved the bill. With the view to address the issues regarding a wide variety of universities in Jammu and Kashmir and separate acts governing each university or group of universities with existing regulations, the government intends to frame a common Public University Bill, which would apply to all public universities of the Union Territory, an administration spokesperson had earlier said The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) said it would not tolerate the erosion of the autonomous character of universities, which are governed by University Grants Commission (UGC) rules across the country.

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Led by Mukesh Manhas, the state unit secretary of the RSS-affiliated organisation, ABVP activists carrying placards staged a sit-in and raised slogans to demand revocation of the bill. Manhas said, "The bill erodes the autonomy of all universities in Jammu and Kashmir. It should be immediately withdrawn." The independence of universities has been snatched and vice-chancellors have been made ineffective, he added. The ABVP leader said the bill granted the power of recruitment to the Public Service Commission (PSC) and the State Service Recruitment Board (SSRB) instead of universities, as per UGC laws. "Now recruitment will be done by the PSC and the SSRB, which has been involved in multiple recruitment scams in recent times," he alleged.

Questioning the Lieutenant Governor's administration for approving the bill, Manhas asked, "Why has this bill been implemented in Jammu and Kashmir alone while all universities across the country are governed by UGC rules?" Manhas threatened massive agitations by students and staff members of all colleges and universities across the Union Territory and demanded that immediate withdrawal of the bill. The ABVP leader said the amendments proposed in the bill infringed on the academic domain of universities and amounted to a mala fide attempt to increase unwanted interference of the bureaucracy.

He said universities were autonomous bodies and government interference in their functioning would disturb the working atmosphere and kill the basic spirit of autonomy at these institutions of higher learning.