Parliament passes Gati Shakti Bill

The Central Universities Amendment Bill, which also seeks to expand the scope of the University from beyond the railways to cover the entire transport sector to support the ambitious growth and modernisation in the field, was passed by a voice vote after a brief discussion.

Parliament Monday passed a bill to convert the National Rail and Transportation University, a deemed-to-be university, into Gati Shakti Vishwavidyalaya, an autonomous central institution. The Central Universities (Amendment) Bill, which also seeks to expand the scope of the University from beyond the railways to cover the entire transport sector to support the ambitious growth and modernisation in the field, was passed by a voice vote after a brief discussion. The bill was passed by the Rajya Sabha by a voice vote. It was cleared by the Lok Sabha last week, also by a voice vote. Union Railways and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw responded to the debate on the bill on Monday in the Upper House.

''Railways' national training institute is established in Gujarat. This university covers the entire transport sector. Railway plays an important role in that,'' Vaishnaw said.

He said several campuses of the university will be set up in various parts of the country and children will be able to take admission.

The minister said the bill has provision to use the existing training infrastructure. He said the railways, metro and transportation sector is a very complex sector and many disciplines including mechanical, electrical, telecommunications, signalling and civil come together to run the railway system. ''This is a public university. Already, the Ministry of Railways has made provision of Rs 166 crore in the budget plus there is another budget being worked out for the construction of the building. This is going to be a publically funded university,'' Vaishnaw said.

The minister said the university is going to have global standards of education. ''If we look at correlated institutes of the world then MIT in the US is probably the best in the world. The way they have taken up transportation focussed courses and created the best cadre of people who are serving all over the world,'' the minister said. He said the government has already collaborated with the MIT.

''We will be tying up with many other institutes in the world. The thought process will be that the students who come out of this university not only serve the transportation sector of India but also they should be capable and be prepared for serving the transportation sector all over the world,'' Vaishnaw said.

Participating in the discussion for consideration and passage of the proposed legislation in the Rajya Sabha, Dola Sen of the Trinamool Congress said the government needs to ensure that sufficient infrastructure and adequate funds are made available to all all Central universities. Sen supported the Bill ''but with a high hope that the government will address other incompatibilities''. Several members raised the issue of vacant posts in Central Universities across the country. V Vijayasai Reddy of the YSRCP said over 20,000 posts are lying vacant in 45 Central Universities under the purview of the Ministry of Education, a view echoed by V Sivadasan CPI(M).

Kanakamedala Ravindra Kumar (TDP) also called for filling up the vacancies in institutes of higher education in a time-bound manner. Some members also talked about vacancies in the Railways.

Members cutting across party lines supported the bill but gave suggestions on how to improve the country's education infrastructure. Vaishnaw in reply said the Railways has given employment to around 3.5 lakh people between 2014-22. ''This is not a small number. If some honourable members need more details, more details can be provided but don't please quote selectively and mislead the House,'' the minister said.

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