Tamil Nadu Assembly passes bill to make CM Stalin chancellor of Siddha Medical University

CHENNAI: The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Thursday passed a Bill to establish a Siddha Medical University in the state, of which Chief Minister M K Stalin will be Chancellor. In his capacity as Chancellor of the university, the Chief Minister will appoint the Vice Chancellor from a list of three names shortlisted by the search committee.

Health and Family Welfare Minister will be the Pro-Chancellor, as per the Tamil Nadu Siddha Medical University Act, 2022. The university will offer courses in AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy), as per the Bill tabled in the Assembly by Health Minister Ma Subramanian on Wednesday.

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The move comes close on the heels of the Assembly adopting two legislations to empower the Chief Minister to become the Chancellor of universities in the state, replacing the Governor and conferring powers to appoint the Vice Chancellors.

The Tamil Nadu Assembly on Monday adopted a bill empowering the state government to appoint vice-chancellors to various universities in the state, in an apparent bid to clip the wings of the Governor on the matter.

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Higher education minister K Ponmudy tabled the bill to amend the Tamil Nadu Universities Laws to allow the state government to appoint VCs to the universities. The BJP opposed the bill at the introductory stage while the main opposition AIADMK, taking exception to a remark on late chief minister J Jayalalithaa by Congress Legislature Party leader K Selvaperunthagai, staged a walkout ahead of the passage of the bill.

Earlier, chief minister MK Stalin, while appealing to members to support the government's initiative, said that even in Gujarat, the home state of the prime minister Narendra Modi, the vice-chancellors are not appointed by the governor but by the State. The same was the case with other states including Telangana and Karnataka. Opposition PMK supported the bill.