Ring Road helps trifurcate BU

Ring Road helps trifurcate BU
Bangalore University may be divided as North, South and Central, based on colleges’ location on Outer Ring Road
SRIDHAR VIVAN


The Outer Ring Road (ORR) spanning across the city may have made driving easy for motorists, but it served a very different purpose for a BU Committee’s members. The state government appointed committee which wants to trifurcate Bangalore University (BU) has made ORR the Line of Control between the three proposed varsities. The committee, in principle, has agreed to trifurcate the mammoth BU as BU-North, South and Central.
It has recommended that colleges located between Bellary Road-Hoskote and Hosur roads will be part of BU-North, and those between Hosur Road-Tumkur and Bellary roads as BU-South. The remaining chunk of colleges inside the ORR will be retained as BU-Central. A committee member told Bangalore Mirror, “We are presenting an interim report to Higher Education Minister Aravind Limbavali on Monday. We have also recommended that the existing Jnanabharati campus be made the headquarters for BU-South, a new campus at Hoskote at 200 acres for BU-North and the existing Central College for BU-Central. The government can also make the nearby colleges of Central college - Government Arts and Science College, Home Science College andMaharanis College as its constituent colleges, thereby increasing its efficiency.”
Another member said, “A varsity needs at least 50 acres of land. However, getting that much land in the heart of the city may be difficult. Hence, we have asked the government to part with 20 acres of land in Race Course (after it gets shifted) and 10 acres in Freedom Park land for BU-Central. There is already around 10 acres in the current Central College which makes around 45 acres.”
“We have also ensured that with the new boundary, none of the proposed varsities will have more than 200 colleges. Currently, BU is one of the largest varsities with 550 colleges affiliated to it”, said another committee member.
DELAYED PROPOSALS
During the Inter-University Board (IUB) meeting, Limbavali had said that no decision could be taken on trifurcating the BU as the committee was yet to submit its proposal. Citing the reasons for delay, a committee member said, “One of the main reasons for delay was mapping the colleges. For those colleges in the city, we decided to do it as per the BBMP map. However, since we started our work, the BBMP wards are constantly increasing. Earlier, BBMP had 100 wards. However, when the committee was formed, it was already 147. Now, the number has gone up to 198. We hope to start mapping the colleges once the state government issues the final notification.” However, the committee members admit that they are yet to work on the issue of staff bifurcation.
BACKGROUND
The demand for division of BU was raised since 1996. BU,Asia’s largest varsity with around 700 colleges, is spread across Bangalore City, Rural, Kolar, Ramanagaram and Chikballapur districts.The administration had come under severe strain, having to oversee around four lakh students. The varsity is also dogged with delays in holding examinations, valuation of answer scripts and announcement of results. According to a senior academician,“A varsity can cater to about 70 to 100 colleges. However, successive administrations have permitted more colleges to mushroom without thinking about the logistical issues. Though Tumkur University was started a couple of years ago for reducing the BU’s burden, many colleges refused to get affiliated for the fear of losing credibility.”
Sometime back, a 10-member committee was formed by the state government under the chairmanship of N Rudraiah to make recommendations on division.Though the committee had two options — to go for course-wise or geographical divisions — it chose the latter.