Lok Sabha MP Satyapal Singh, today, Thursday, December 7, suggested that tribal universities in the country should not have the prefix "tribal", saying there was a need to reconsider such a division.
Participating in a debate in the Lower House on the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2023, in the Lok Sabha for the establishment of a central tribal university in Telangana, Baghpat MP said, “On August 15, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had listed Panch Pran targets and one of them was that we will get rid of all signs of slavery. When we say someone is a tribal, we are referring to all others as non-tribals and not natives. There is a need to deliberate on this division again. I believe the university should not be named as a 'tribal' university."
The Lok Sabha, on Wednesday, December 6, took up a bill for the establishment of the Sammakka Sarakka Central Tribal University in Telangana, reported PTI.
Piloting the Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Lower House, Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar said the tribal university in Telangana is being established in pursuance of the commitments made in the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014.
The discussion on the bill continued on Thursday, as per the PTI report.
Participating in the debate on the bill, ST Hasan, Moradabad MP, said that the annual budget for Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Millia Islamia was slashed by 15 per cent in the past few years.
"Research processes and academics have been affected due to budget cuts of these prestigious universities. It is a good thing that a central tribal university is being established but the budget of existing good universities should not be reduced," the Samajwadi Party MP said.
