Maharashtra Cabinet Approves Model Guidelines For Opening Private University

After deferring Private Universities Bill, which got mired over the point of caste based reservation being not provided in it, the State Government of Maharashtra merely framed guidelines for setting up private universities in the state, which has now been approved by the cabinet on Tuesday, thus clearing the deck for private universities in Maharashtra.

After the opposition to the original draft of the bill which was without a fixed percentage of reservation for backward class students, was redrafted with 25% proposed reservation, however the same was rejected by the Governor K Sankaranarayanan.

Now the government has approved the model guidelines for setting up a private university in the state with the course that there will be separate bill for each private university proposal drafted according to these approved guidelines.

The new guidelines stipulate 50% reservation for backward classes. The new guidelines allow a private organization to set up the university on a no-profit, no-loss basis, along with any trust or society.

Infrastructure requirements needed to set up universities in a district and rural centre were also relaxed. While the Act had stipulated that a minimum requirement of 50 acres and 100 acres to set up universities in district and rural areas, these have been relaxed to 25 acres and 50 acres respectively, according to the model guidelines.