Nagpur : The Maharashtra Government on Wednesday officially notified ‘Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016’. Its Higher and Technical Education Department issued a notification signed by principal secretary Sitaram Kunte.
“In exercise of the powers conferred by subsection (2) of Section 1 of the ‘Maharashtra Public Universities Act, 2016’ (Mah. Act. No. VI of 2017), Government of Maharashtra hereby, appoints March 1, 2017, to be the date on which the said Act shall come into force,” the notification mentioned.
The move marked end of old ‘Maharashtra Universities Act, 1994’, over two decades after it was introduced. Of late, it had become obsolete in the era of information technology (IT) and there was growing demand to abolish it.
The copies of new Act were — emailed to the universities by the government informing them about the important development. The Higher and Technical Education Department conveyed to all vice chancellors, pro-VCs, registrars, Board of College and University Development (BCUD) directors, and directors and joint directors of higher and technical education, to attend the orientation programme on Friday. The stakeholders would be apprised on implementation of the new Act at Sahayadri Guest House at Malabar Hills in Mumbai.
Quoting deputy secretary with State Higher and Technical Education Department, Siddarth Kharat reported in detail on government coming out with the notification regarding implementation of the Act by the traditional universities.
From Nagpur University, VC SP Kane and pro-VC Pramod Yeole would be attending orientation programme. The duo would be flying out on Thursday evening after attending the series of meetings, including that of Purchase Committee.
The VC informed that they were in total confusion regarding some provisions and appointments to be made, and they would be raising all such issues during Friday’s meeting. “From today, the post of Controller of examinations (COE) is abolished and replaced by ‘director (Examinations)’. Now, all the results are signed by COE, how is it possible to make new appointment instantly. Even the post of BCUD director is phased out and replaced by ‘Board of Innovation, Incubation and Enterprise’ to be headed by senior bank officer. Now, in this case, how we will proceed?” Kane asked.
As a precautionary measure, the VC directed COE Neeraj Khaty not to issue mark sheets or sign on anything until he returns from Mumbai with solutions to these problems. He informed that there is a confusion on appointments of four deans who will be salaried officers of university and six posts of directors. “There is no clarity on their pay scales yet. The government would need to come out with a proper format on these issues. I think, most of them would be addressed during orientation programme,” Kane hoped.
As per the new Act, the universities would have separate boards for IT, ‘innovation, incubation & enterprise’, and ‘national & international linkages’ along with new faculty of interdisciplinary studies. It has made new accounting method made mandatory for all universities for transparency.
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