LS takes up bills of Sikkim, Arunachal, Tripura Universities

New Delhi, Dec 18 (UNI) The Lok Sabha today took up together for consideration three separate bills to establish and incorporate one teaching and affiliating university each in the states of Sikkim, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh.

The bills have already been passed by the Rajya Sabha.

Initiating the discussion on the bills, moved by Minister of State for Human Resources Development M A A Fatmi, BJP member Khiren Rijiju welcomed the decision to meet the long-pending demands of the people of Arunachal Pradesh for a central university.

He said the Arunachal Pradesh University was set up by the state government 22 years ago. Therefore, its name should not be changed to "Rajiv Gandhi University". Such a proposal should be dropped by taking into consideration the sentiments of the people who would like to get the name of their states associated with the University.

''If the government is very particular to have the name of Rajiv Gandhi, then the university should be known as Arunachal Rajiv Gandhi University,'' he suggested.

Mr Khagen Das (CPI-M) made several suggestions to improve the standard of the Tripura University, while Francis Fanthome (Nominated) made a strong case for increasing the facilities at the Sikkim University.

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