Universities Act proves to be a toothless legislation, Without Enabling Statutes

The implementation of much awaited 'Universities Act' is proving to be cumbersome, Because State Government has not constituted the Statutes governing the ground work, ensuring the smooth working of the Act. 

Maharashtra Public Universities Act has already come in to force from 1st March 2017. It's revel in a query filed by RTI Activist Anil Galgali.

"Every day working of 11 Universities across Maharashtra has been affected and work has almost come to a standstill'.

Through an RTI query, Anil Galgali exposed how Maharashtra Government hurriedly implemented the Act, But conveniently forgot to constitute the committees under the Act. The process of formation of Statutes is underway, Galgali was told by Under Secretary and Public Information Officer of Higher and Technical Education Satish Mali.

This makes mockery of legislation crafted over the years on suggestions of three high powered committees. Dr Anil Kakodkar Committee, Dr Arun Nigvekar Committee and Dr Ram Takawale Committee were set up in 2010-11 to suggest changes in age-old Universities Act, With the purpose of empowering the Universities and strenghening the internal mechanisms, Enabling them to face global challenges. The first draft of the Universities Bill was tabled before Maharashtra Legislature in April 2016. A joint Committee of 21 members of State Assembly & Council was constituted to  suggest amendments to this important Act. This Committee took 10 meeting to further fine-tune the Bill. It was only after this enormous exercise that 'Maharastra Public Universities Bill' was unanimously passed by both the houses of Maharashtra Legislature in December 2016.

Now Anil Galgali has written to State Governor, Who incidently is also the Chancellor of the Universities, seeking his intervention. Galgali has requested that the Governor instruct the Government to ensure that the Statutes are in place, Before the legislation is actually enforced.