Crucial meet on MU today

GAYA: With only about five weeks left for the formal commencement of the academic session 2018-19, the stalemate over the nitty-gritty of Magadh University (MU) bifurcation and creation of its offshoot Pataliputra University persists.
After a series of failed meetings, including the one on May 16, to break the deadlock over a range of issues like distribution of assets, conducting exam and apportionment of employees, all eyes are now fixed on Tuesday meeting to be held at the state education department office in Patna.

As against 19 constituent and one government-funded minority college left with MU, Pataliputra University has got 25 constituent and 3 government-funded minority colleges.

Expressing surprise over non-resolution of the issues, Federation of Teachers Associations of Bihar (FUTAB) president Kanhaiya Bahadur Sinha said the rules for university division were framed during the creation of Veer Kunwar Singh University (VKSU), Ara and that have not been changed since then. VKSU was carved out of MU in mid-1990s and 17 of its constituent colleges were tagged to the new university.

Largely based on the VKSU model, MU officials are learnt to have prepared a draft MoU to be signed between the two universities. As per the draft, the parent university will conduct exam of the students admitted prior to the creation of Pataliputra University. It also commits MU to give Rs5 crore in two instalments and two vehicles from its pool of cars.

Employees approaching superannuation age within one year and those having serious health issues have been kept out of the apportionment purview. Of the remaining nearly 400 employees, 73% are to be shifted to Pataliputra University.

Courtesy: TNN