HRD Ministry calls for a meeting to restore the powers of AICTE

Minister of Human Resource Department (HRD) has called for a meeting with the officials of UGC, B-schools and AICTE to restore the powers of the AICTE regulations.

A senior ministry official said, "There is an internal meeting to decide on giving further power to AICTE. The UGC (University Grants Commission) cannot regulate the institutions and with the matter being a serious one, the ministry wants to decide on the amendment to the AICTE Act soon."

In 2013, Supreme Court had ruled out the powers of AICTE. It does not have the permission to sanction the new college. It was only an advisory body.

According to the officials, Ministry is looking to set some standards in technical institutions and higher education.

"We are hoping that the HRD ministry takes a decision tomorrow. We are waiting and watching," said Chowdhari Prasad, chairman-admissions at T A Pai Institute of Management.

B-schools across the nation shows anger and unhappiness on the new regulations drafted by the UGC.

HRD Minister M M Pallam Raju said, "We are working on it and hope to get it approved soon. We had planned an ordinance but we do not think we will go ahead with that."

Now, AICTE filled a review petition against the SC order, saying AICTE had played the role of regulator from many years and all of a sudden it went wrong.

AICTE Chairman S S Mantha said, "We do not want to damage students' future. There could be a tremendous amount of exploitation and unstructured growth. We do not want that to happen."

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