AGARTALA, January 20 (TIWN): On yet another drive to perk up the education system here at the state, the state govt. prepared a separate State University Bill to place it in the upcoming budget session starting from February 16. The state govt. targets to affiliate the city colleges including the technical and the no-technical colleges and the district level colleges under the state university.

Speaking to the reporters here at the civil secretariat Education Minister Tapan Chakroborty said that the state govt. has targeted the city colleges including the technical and the no-technical colleges and the district level colleges to bring under the affiliation of the state university. However, but no final decision has been taken yet in this regard, said Chakroborty.

Later on a reply to the reporter’s question, Minister Tapan Chakroborty said that the colleges that are already under the affiliation of the central university can also be brought to the affiliation of state university. “There is no such norms under the UGC guidelines under which the centrally affiliated colleges cannot be brought under the affiliation to the state university”, said Minister Tapan Chakroborty.

The Tripura Government would set up a separate university for the state besides the existing central university. “We have prepared the State University bill to set up state university. It has been tabled in the meeting of the council of ministers and has been finalised. The same bill would be placed in the winter session of the state assembly beginning in February and if passed, the university would be set up”, State Higher Education minister Tapan Chakraborty said earlier.

However, after passing the bill in the assembly and obtaining the governor’s assent, it would be sent to HRD ministry and the UGC for their approval.

The proposed university is planned to be named after the erstwhile Tripura ruler Maharaja Birbikram Kishore Manikya Bahadur. And the university will be set up centering the existing MBB College. This proposed university would ease the pressure from the Tripura University and would help boost the quality of higher education in this region. It would also help students not to migrate from their states for their higher studies and enable them to undergo better studies.

However it is mentionable here that with around 18,000 students enrolling every year in the 22 degree colleges, two medical colleges and 15 other professional and technical colleges, Tripura is certainly marching ahead in the arena of higher studies and could come up as a major player in the country in the years to come.

However as per some intellectuals, actual reason behind establishing a State University is creation of breeding ground for CPIM student leaders, politics rather than studies. At present, State Govt has no control over Central University so Tripura Central University excelling in many different fields of education - so, next State controlled university will be a playgrounds for political vagabonds.