Private universities issue rock Himachal Assembly

The issue of permission granted to large number of private universities to set up campuses in Himachal Pradesh and land purchased by them, rocked Himachal Assembly today with members questioning the credentials of these universities and the degrees being awarded by them.
Raising the question during Question Hour, former education minister Asha Kumari (Congress) asked whether the degrees being offered by these universities were recognised or they were only "pieces of paper".
"Are we playing with the future of the students by giving the degrees, which don't have any value?" she asked.
She wanted to know the parameters for giving permission to private universities to purchase large chunks of land for developing campuses, in relaxation of section 118 of the HP Tenancy and Land Reforms Act, which barred non-agriculturists to purchase any land in the state without government's permission.

Replying to the question, Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh said, 15 private universities were allowed to open campuses during the BJP regime from Jan 1, 2008 to Dec 31, 2012 and only six universities out of these have been inspected by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
"We have not received any inspection report from the UGC regarding these universities," he added.
Referring to permissions given for purchase of land to the universities, Asha Kumari alleged that certain universities were permitted to buy huge chunks of land, while most of them were allowed to buy excess land.
"When 50 bighas (one bigha is 0.4 hectare) is sufficient for developing the campus, why some universities were allowed to purchase 600 bighas of land?" she wondered adding that how can these universities retain the excess land and not utilising it for the purpose for which it was ostensibly bought.