Of these, 90 universities are privately managed; the rest are in public domain. The most striking part of the story is that of the 125 institutions in questions, 44.8 per cent, i.e. 56 institutions were notified as deemed only in the last five years of the UPA rule when Arjun Singh was HRD minister.

As many as 47 of the 90 private institutions were passed off as deemed in these five years; 31 of them in haste in the last two years of the former minister's term. Come to think of it, the first university to be granted deemed status in India was the Indian Council for Agricultural Research way back in 1958.

Enquiries made by The Tribune today further revealed that Tamil Nadu has the highest number -- at 27 -- of private universities to have been granted deemed status by the government. Only two government institutes in this state have been recognised as deemed.

Also in this category are Bharath Institute of Higher Education and Sri Ramachandra Medical College, Chennai, whose constituent colleges were recently found demanding capitation fee from students. Tamil Nadu is followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka, which have 16 and 12 private deemed varsities, respectively. New Delhi with 11; Uttar Pradesh with 10 and Rajasthan with 7 deemed universities come next.

Haryana and Punjab, respectively, have only 5 and 3 such varsities to be monitored. Government sector deemed institutes in Haryana include National Dairy Research Institute, Karnal and National Brain Research Centre, Gurgaon. In Punjab, PEC, Chandigarh, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology, Sangrur and Thapar Institute of Engineering, Patiala will be reviewed.

Source: The Tribune Fate of 125 deemed varsities hangs in balance