Law varsity ordinance okayed by Cabinet

PATNA: The state cabinet which met here on Tuesday, approved the Chanakya National Law University (CNLU) Ordinance, 2006, and a seemingly progressive Bihar Ration Coupon Scheme, 2006. According to cabinet secretary A K Chouhan, a national-level admission test will be held on July 13 for 80 seats in the five-year integrated law degree course of CNLU and the classes will start from August 14 this year. Reservation provisions will also be applicable in the case of these admissions. The Chief Justice of the Patna High Court will be the chancellor of CNLU. The cabinet also approved the Bihar Ration Coupon Scheme for the beneficiaries of the BPL, Annapurna and Antyodaya Anna Yojana. This scheme is inspired by a similar one launched by the Rajasthan government. The scheme is aimed at checking the black-marketing of food grains supplied through PDS (public distribution system) shops. Under the scheme, the beneficiaries will be given ration coupons for the whole year at a time. Chouhan saidA Laxminath will be the first vice-chancellor of CNLU on contract. Laxminath has the experience of launching a similar national law university at Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh, which later on gained national prominence. CNLU will have its general council and executive council to govern its affairs. The general council will be the highest decision-making body which is to be headed by the chancellor of the proposed university. The executive council headed by the vice-chancellor will look after the university affairs on day-to-day basis. The proposed university has been accorded autonomy by the state government, but according to the CNLU ordinance approved by the state cabinet, a three-member search committee will be set up to finalise the panel for appointment of the university's vice-chancellor. The name of the vice-chancellor will finally be cleared and recommended by the state government. The search committee will have a member nominated by the state government, another by the CNLU executive council and the third one by the University Grants Commission. According to Chouhan, initially, the state government will appoint CNLU officials for the first five-year period. The varsity will have a Rs 40-crore corpus fund, but it will be self-financing. It will initially be located on the A N Sinha Institute of Social Studies campus but later set up at Mithapur agriculture farm.