Ordinance on degree-giving powers to Arch schools unlikely

A proposal to bring an ordinance to grant degree-giving powers to schools of planning and architecture seems to have run into rough weather with an item in this regard being removed from the Cabinet note.
The Union Cabinet, which is meeting tomorrow, was to take up the issue but sources said that the item was deleted in the face of objections from the Law Ministry.
The sources said the Law Ministry had questioned the urgency of bringing the ordinance. Besides, they said the move would have not gone down well with the Election Commission as the model code of conduct is in place and it would have been seen as influencing young voters.

The HRD Ministry had been planning the ordinance to enable the school here along with those in Bhopal and Vijayawada award degrees.
The first batch of students of the Bhopal and Vijayawada schools, who have already passed out have been issued provisional degrees for the B.Arch and B.Plan courses. Both these schools have been registered as societies and cannot award degrees.