Kathmandu – In the clause-by-clause discussion of the Shaheed Dasharath Chand Health Sciences University Bill under the Education, Health and Technology Committee of the House of Representatives, Nepali Congress MP Dr. Chandra Bhandari has proposed to make a former president or former prime minister the chancellor, as it would not be possible to give time to the incumbent prime minister to be the chancellor.

Stating that this is a practice in the world, MP Bhandari said that if a person holding a prestigious position is given one university each, a leap forward can be made in transforming the society.

Meanwhile, Maoist MP Mahindra Raya Yadav said that it would not be possible to keep the university out of politics by making the chancellor when former heads of state are trying to attend party meetings, and suggested that the education minister be the chancellor and vice-chancellor through competition among experts.

The Shaheed Dasharath Chand Health Sciences University Bill has a provision that the chancellor be the prime minister. The lawmakers have made different proposals on this.

Maoist MP Rekha Sharma has suggested that the Education Minister can be made more responsible by making the Prime Minister a protector, but the Vice-Chancellor should be made an expert.

Section 6 of the bill states that the university officials will be the Chancellor, Associate Chancellor, Vice-Chancellor, Registrar, Dean, Principal and Hospital Director. However, there are differences of opinion among the committee officials on who should be the chief official in the committee. Since the committee could not reach a conclusion on who should be the Chancellor, Section 6 has been put on hold, saying that further consultations will be held.