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New private universities in Assam will need security clearance: Himanta
The Assam cabinet approved setting up two private universities at Sipajhar and Tinsukia, for which MoUs were signed at the recently concluded investment summit
GUWAHATI: The Assam cabinet on Tuesday decided that any new private university being set up in the state will first have to get security clearance and not indulge in religious conversions, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.
“From now on any new private university which comes up in the state will first have to secure clearances from the home and political departments in view of national security. Secondly, these private universities will have to be secular, and they shouldn’t indulge in religious conversion both directly and indirectly,” chief minister Sarma said after the cabinet meeting.
If any violations of these conditions are witnessed, then the licences of those universities will be cancelled, the chief minister said, adding that the cabinet has approved new rules to give more teeth to the law.
The cabinet also approved setting up two private universities at Sipajhar and Tinsukia, for which MoUs were signed at the recently concluded Advantage Assam 2.0 infrastructure and investment summit.
“The outstanding response we received at the infrastructure and investment summit was largely responsible for the bold decision taken by the Tata Group to set up a semiconductor facility at Jagiroad,” said Sarma.
“In recognition of the group’s decision and its former chairman emeritus Late Ratan Tata, the cabinet has approved naming of the area covering the semiconductor facility and associated business near it as Ratan Tata Electronics City, Jagiroad,” he added.
According to the state government, the Advantage Assam 2.0 summit, which concluded last week, had resulted in infrastructure and investment proposals worth ₹5.18 lakh crores including announcements by Reliance Industries Limited, Adani Group and Vedanta committing investments of ₹50,000 crores each in the state.
To be sure, not all investment proposals or MoUs signed by governments and private companies translate into real projects.
