Bill to set up Vedic varsity introduced in Assembly

A Bill, which seeks to replace an ordinance promulgated by the Andhra Pradesh governor for the establishment of 'Sri Venkateswara Vedic University', has been moved in the state legislative Assembly by the minister for higher education, P Venkateswara Rao, on Tuesday.

The Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam will fully fund the proposed university, which is aimed at preserving, fostering and promoting oral traditions of vedic, agamic and cognate literature with a focus on right intonations.

As per the statement of objects of the Bill, the university will also conduct research and propagate the relevance of vedic literature for meeting the challenges of life in the technology-driven contemporary society.

The objectives of the university include digitisation of vedas, creation of a network of vedic, Sanskrit and other academic institutions and publishing vedas and related texts in all Indian scripts.

Another Bill, introduced in the House by commercial taxes minister Konathala Ramakrishna, seeks to further amend the AP Value Added Tax Act, 2005, so to provide for refunding the excess tax paid by dealers in deserving cases.