Rajya Sabha takes up bill to set up Tribhuvan Sahkari University in Gujarat's Anand

NEW DELHI: The Rajya Sabha on Tuesday took up the Tribhuvan Sahkari University Bill, 2025, which proposes to set up 'Tribhuvan Sahkari University' in Gujarat's Anand to create qualified manpower for cooperative societies, for discussion and passage. The university has been named after Tribhuvandas Kishibhai Patel, who was one of the pioneers of the cooperative movement in India and instrumental in laying the foundation of Amul. The bill, passed by the Lok Sabha last week, was tabled in the Upper House by Murlidhar Mohol, Minister of State for Cooperatives, on behalf of Union Minister for Cooperation and Home Affairs Amit Shah.

Participating in the discussion on the Bill, Congress member Digvijaya Singh termed it a "conspiracy" to hand over the cooperatives to industrialists from workers and farmers. "Through this Bill, the cooperatives are being corporatised. The Cooperative Ministry and the cooperative movement is being taken away from the hands of the workers and the farmers and it is being given to the industrialists," Singh said. He suggested that every five years, elections should be held in the cooperative societies. Singh claimed that in many states, where the "double engine" government of the BJP is in power, elections for cooperative societies are not taking place. He also alleged the "scams" involving cooperative banks in places like Shivpuri and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh.

The Tribhuvan Sahkari Cooperative University will have the capacity to train eight lakh people every year. Participating in the debate, Dola Sen of Trinamool Congress (TMC) demanded to send this bill to the committee and not rush to pass it like other bills in the past. K R N Rajesh Kumar of the DMK wanted to know whether this university has come under the Central University Act as it has been autonomously created by the Ministry of Cooperation. He asked whether it has the approval of UGC for the award of higher degrees. He also suggested that it should be renamed Tribhuvan Cooperative University so that non-Hindi states could understand its name.

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Ashok Kumar Mittal of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said Punjab has always supported the country through cooperative movements, whether it was the green revolution or food security of the country. He demanded that a campus of Tribhuvan Sahkari University should be set up in Punjab also. Subhashish Khuntia of the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) said this bill promotes centralisation and is against state federalism. This is an act to bring cooperative institutions under the control of the central government under the name of education. Education comes under the concurrent list, however, this government imposes orders without consulting the state governments. Khuntia also said Orissa has a strong history of small cooperative societies and if the government wants to strengthen cooperatives in the states, then it should start from Orissa.

50% state quota in university

Ayodhya Rami Reddy Alla of the YSR Congress Party (YSRCP) supported the bill. Sanjay Yadav of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) said this bill undermines the Institute of Rural Management Anand's (IRMA) institutional autonomy and academic freedom. The representation of the state government is minimised and has no reservations for SCs, STs and OBCs. He suggested that the state should have 50 per cent reservation in Tribhuvan Sahkari University and 20 per cent in Primary Agriculture Cooperative Credit Societies (PACS). Yadav also pointed out that the Centre is setting up Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya in Gujarat and now this one. All such institutions should not go to Gujarat, he said.

M Thambidurai of the AIADMK raised the issue of vacant posts of vice chancellors (VCs) in Tamil Nadu and said nine universities, including Anna University, have no VC. This is due to the failure of the present DMK government because it is not putting UGC nominees in the selection committee, he said. Abdul Wahab of the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) supported the bill and said he would be happier if this institution was in the name of Verghese Kurien and the state of Kerala.