The Karnataka government has constituted a six-member expert committee to examine the feasibility of a proposal for setting up University of Agricultural Sciences in VC Farm of Mandya district.
The committee is headed by former Vice-Chancellor of UAS-Bengaluru Rajendra Prasad. The committee’s other members are P.L. Patil, Vice-Chancellor of UAS-Dharwad, A.B. Patil, retired registrar of UAS-Bengaluru, K.M. Harinikumar, retired administrative officer of UAS-Bengaluru, and Chandrahas G. Thalukura, retired joint secretary of Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms. V.R. Kiresur, director of Education of UAS-Dharwad, is the member convener of the expert committee.
While no deadline has been set for the committee to submit its report, the notification issued by the government on Friday has directed it to submit the report “urgently”.
The government had earlier initiated moves to set up a new University of Agricultural Sciences in Mandya and was reportedly keen to announce the proposal in the State Budget. However, the proposal had drawn criticism from academicians and experts who had expressed concern that it would affect the future of both the new as well as the existing one, as the new university would have to be carved out from UAS-Bengaluru.
Experts had observed that both would become too small in terms of geographical jurisdiction and students’ strength, which would not only increase the overhead costs, but also make it non-feasible in terms of scale of operations.
Following this, the State Budget only announced constitution of a panel to study the feasibility. Accordingly, the State government issued a notification constituting the panel.
