New Delhi: More than 200 technical institutes in the country were “allowed” to shut down due to “a variety of reasons” by All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in past two years, the government today said.
In a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Human Resource Development Mahendra Nath Pandey submitted data according to which a total of 10,328 technical institutions functioned in the country in 2015-16.
Over 20 lakh students were enrolled in them.
“Only 125 institutions in 2015-16 and 106 institutions in 2016-17 have applied for closure due to variety of reasons and have been allowed to shut down by AICTE,” Pandey said.
He was separately asked whether the Central University of Jharkhand was being run at a Panchayat Training Campus, to which the Union minister replied in the affirmative.
“Yes, sir,” he said.
Further, the minister went on to explain the reason for running a central university at a panchyat campus, saying the construction of new buildings has been stopped as the CBI was conducting an inquiry into allegations of irregularities.
“CBI has advised the university not to release any payments to the contractors/suppliers/architects. As such, the buildings are incomplete and the university has not been moved to new buildings,” Pandey said.