Sibal reaching out to MPs for passage of reform bills

Updated on: Friday, October 29, 2010

After the bitter experience inthe Monsoon session of Parliament, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal seems to be walking the extra mile to seek support of MPs across political spectrum for passage of his pet education reforms bills.

This became clear at the meeting of the consultative committee attached to his Ministry on wednesday where he once again sought their support in passage of these bills and assured them of taking care of their concerns.

Sources said when some MPs raised concerns over reports of corruption in technical institutes, Sibal made good use of the occasion, saying the proposed Prohibition of Educational Malpractices Bill and the National Accreditation Regulatory Authority Bill seeks to address these issues.

The former bill was deferred for consideration by a Parliamentary Standing Committee headed by Oscar Fernandes in September. The Minister had also received a setback during the monsoon session when the Education Tribunal Bill was deferred in the Rajya Sabha.

Following this Sibal have been reaching out to the Mps across several parties for their support on various occasions. The meeting was attended by MPs like Adagooru H Vishwanath, Lalji Tandon, Nirmal Khatri, Ganeshrao Nagorao Dudhgaonkar, Kabindra Purkayastha and Thambi Durai.

While the functioning of apex bodies in technical education like AICTE came under the lens at the meeting, the Minister said the subject of the next meeting could also be AICTE reforms.

He said that while some problems have been experienced in implementation of e-governance initiative in AICTE, they were due to unavailability of quality computers and the delay in their upgrading by engineering institutes.

When one of the MPs wanted to know the reason for according the e-governance contract in AICTE to a private party rather than the National Informatics Centre, Sibal reasoned that NIC was unable to provide the solution required for the project.

Sources said one MP expressed reservations regarding a pan-India common engineering entrance test considering the disparity in the country. Another MP said the qualification for entering polytechnics should be increased to plus two instead of the current class X

Sibal reaching out to MPs for passage of reform bills

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