Minister Shivanand Patil promises efforts to stop merger or closure of Haveri University

Minister Shivanand Patil vows to prevent closure of Haveri University, addressing concerns of 'Save Haveri University Agitation Committee'.

Minister for Textiles and Sugarcane Development and the District in-charge Minister for Haveri, Shivanand Patil, has assured to make efforts to stop merger or closure of Haveri university.

Responding to the plea of the convenors of ‘Save Haveri University Agitation Committee’, who met him in Haveri on Monday, the minister promised to make all efforts to save the university.

The minister said that the Chief Minister has clarified during the Budget session that the university would not be closed down. Such being the case the question of closing down Haveri university does not arise, he said.

Convenor of the committee, Basavaraj Pujar, said that they expected the government to make an announcement on not closing down universities during the Budget session. However as no such announcement was made and the Chief Minister, Deputy Chief Minister, and the Higher Education Minister made contradictory statements, their anxiety had further increased, he said.

While the Chief Minister said the universities would not be closed down, both the Deputy Chief Minister and the Higher Education Minister had spoken about merger of universities, which had confused them, he said.

The delegation comprised of writer Satish Kukarni, elected representatives of local bodies Shashikala Malagi, Mallikarjun Sathenahalli and others. The minister assured the delegation that the government was in the process of getting reports on various universities and he would make all efforts to ensure that injustice was not meted out to Haveri University.