Students launch ‘Save UVCE’ movement in Bengaluru

Hundreds of students of University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) launched the ‘Save UVCE’ movement after Bangalore University expressed inability to pay salaries of UVCE staff

Hundreds of students of University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) protested under the leadership of AIDSO Bengaluru District Committee at Freedom Park on March 30 and launched the ‘Save UVCE’ movement .

Ajay Kamath, State secretary of AIDSO, said, “Developing UVCE or making it an autonomous institution is not the topic of today’s discussion. Our opposition today is against the Karnataka government’s desire to gradually privatise the government college in the name of development and autonomy.”

“The government has completely forgotten its responsibility by not providing adequate funds to the UVCE, not paying salaries to lecturers, and not taking measures for overall educational development of the college. We students should not let the aspirations of the great revolutionaries and freedom-fighters of the country be crushed. We should fight to save the UVCE for the next generation. We demand that saving the prestigious and historic UVCE be the priority of the government,” he said.

In December 2021, Minister for Higher Education C.N. Ashwath Narayan said that the Karnataka Government will develop the University of Visvesvaraya College of Engineering (UVCE) on the lines of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT). “Right now, we are spending only ₹40 crore a year. However, the annual budget of IIT in Mumbai is over ₹1,200 crore. We wish to develop the institute as a model college,” he said.