Govt team returns with bad news for varsities

Even as thousands of students, who have refused to attend classes and take their examinations, made a 2-km-long human chain in the State Capital to demand early resolution of the problem, the government said today that it was helpless in the face of the Supreme Court order of February 11 which had ordered closure of the universities.

‘‘You see the Supreme Court order is very clear on this. We don’t see any ambiguity. The private universities are free to take affiliations. If they go for that, we will help them and even relax the norms,’’ said Mishra.

‘‘The government has examined all the options. The issue was discussed at the meeting of the coordination committee at Raj Bhavan last week and it was decided to grant affiliations to these universities.’’ However, she said, most of the universities were not keen on taking affiliations. ‘‘We are in constant touch with the students and trying to convince them to agree to the option. It’s a question of their own future. All the students appearing in the examinations of the affiliated university will get separate certificates, clearly mentioning their institutes.’’

It is learnt that Chief Minister Raman Singh is not very keen on enacting a new legislation for private universities.

The delay in finding a solution to the problem has left the universities fuming. The management at Amity has declared a holiday till Monday, and all internal examinations have been postponed indefinitely. ‘‘The situation has worsened, yet the state government is not bothered. No one is telling us clearly what will follow next,’’ says Arun Patnaik, a senior official at the university.

Amity group chairman Ashok Chauhan has charged the state government with wasting a full month in deliberating on the judgement without reaching any decision on enacting a law.