
After holding it for over a year for “consideration”, Governor Ram Naik Monday cleared Uttar Pradesh Medical University, Saifai, Etawah Bill, 2015 in its “existing form”, paving the way for the state to get its second medical university. The university will be set up in Saifai, Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav’s native village.
The lone medical university in UP is Lucknow’s King George Medical University; the rest are medical colleges or institutes. With Naik clearing the Bill, the existing Saifai Rural Institute of Medical Sciences and Research, Etawah, will turn into a university with the Chief Minister as its ex-officio Chancellor.
“The Bill has been cleared in its existing form,” Naik told The Indian Express Monday.
[related-post]
Subscriber Only Stories
The decision comes two days after Akhilesh met the Governor to discuss pending Bills.
The cabinet had cleared the Bill in February last year, months after Naik had disposed of another proposal by the state government to set up a medical university in Greater Noida, which too had called for making the CM the Chancellor through ordinance. While stating that the clause “will influence the autonomy of the university”, Naik had raised doubts on the relevance of using the ordinance route to seek the university’s formation.
Fearing similar fate for the proposed Saifai Medical University (SMU), the state government then decided to come up with a Bill rather than an ordinance.
- The Indian Express website has been rated GREEN for its credibility and trustworthiness by Newsguard, a global service that rates news sources for their journalistic standards.