Vijayawada: The Andhra Pradesh government has given the green signal for setting up private universities in the state. It is going to introduce a bill in this regard in the coming Assembly session.

The minister for Human Resources Ganta Srivivasa Rao on Thursday met the teachers' MLC representatives in Vijayawada. Speaking to the media persons after the meeting, the minister stated that a decision has been taken by the government to allow private universities in the state.

The minister said that presently there is a favourable trend towards setting up private universities across the 22 states of the country. Over 200 of the 738 universtites in India are private universities, he added.
The option to set up these universities will be available once the bill is passed in the assembly, the minister revealed.

What's the point of discussions after making the decision?
The MLCs of the Progressive Democratic Front (PDF) B. Balasubramanyam, A.V.S. Sharma, Gayanand, Y.Srinivas Reddy, Boddu Nageshwar Rao argued that it is not proper on the government's part to invite a discussion after they had already decided to bring out the bill on private universities.

The MLC's who also addressed the media after their meeting with Ganta Srinivas Rao. They opined that it would have been more useful for the establishment of qualitative education in the state had the government sought their inputs before the decision was made.

They expressed concern over the state not receiving UGS grants through RUSM from the center because 1700 vacancies in the state universities were left unfilled. Without filling in the vacancies in the state universities and bringing in the necessary funds or taking up measures to strengthen them, the government's decision to hand over higher education to private universities is not right the teachers argued.