Urban Development, not HRD, to regulate architecture education
The decision was taken even though the HRD Ministry had opposed the proposal in a meeting held at the Cabinet Secretariat last month.
The
NDA government is set to take architecture education out of the Human Resources
Development (HRD) Ministry’s purview and allocate it to the Urban Development
Ministry, sources have told The Indian Express. The decision was taken even
though the HRD Ministry had opposed the proposal in a meeting held at the
Cabinet Secretariat last month. The then higher education secretary V S Oberoi,
who retired on February 28, had attended the discussion.
The move was subsequently communicated by the
Cabinet Secretary’s office to the two ministries last week. The change will be
formally notified through an amendment to the Allocation of Business Rules
1961, which enlists responsibilities of each ministry under the Union
government.
The Architects Act, 1972 under the Department
Of Higher Education in the AOB rules will be deleted through a gazette
notification, sources said. This law provides for registration of architects,
maintaining standards of architectural education, recognition of qualifications
and standards of practice to be complied with by practising architects. With
the transfer of the Architects Act, HRD Ministry will no longer be in-charge of
regulating architectural education through the Council of Architecture (CoA).
The decision has been justified on the ground
that architecture education will be best served under a ministry that deals
directly with the subject. This comes at a time when the CoA is locked in a
fierce turf war with the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE). The
latter is backed by the HRD Ministry.
According to the HRD Ministry, the CoA, on
several occasions, has interfered in architectural education beyond its mandate
and encroached on the role of AICTE, which is expected to maintain standards of
technical education, including architecture. The CoA, the ministry has
maintained, was set up through the Architects Act only to provide for the
registration of architects and related matters.
To curb CoA’s alleged transgressions, the HRD
Ministry, under the UPA II government, had introduced a Bill proposing
amendments to the Architects Act in the Rajya Sabha in 2010 to allow the
ministry to take over the Council in case it oversteps its brief. However, the
ministry, after Prakesh Javadekar took charge, moved a Cabinet note to withdraw
this Bill from the Rajya Sabha citing a need for wider consultation.
It’s unclear at this moment if Urban
Development Ministry will take the same Cabinet note forward or redraft another
one. This is the second time the HRD Ministry has been made to give up one of
its responsibilities. In March last year, the government transferred copyrights
from its ambit to the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion (DIPP).
The move also gains significance against the
backdrop of Skill Development Minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy making a case to take
AICTE over from HRD Ministry. The proposed takeover, as suggested by Rudy, will
help create a holistic skill ecosystem, which he believes is incomplete without
bringing the engineering streams under his ministry’s fold. The HRD Ministry,
reportedly, is not keen on such a transfer. The Indian Express could not reach
CoA President Biswaranjan Nayak for a reaction.
Source | Indian Express | 9 March 2017
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