New Delhi, Dec 16 : There are 21 'fake universities' operating in the country and the respective state governments are taking action against them, the Parliament was informed on Monday.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said in a reply in Lok Sabha that the list of fake universities is available on the website of the University Grants Commission (UGC) at https://www.ugc.gov.in/universitydetails/Fakeuniversity.

Out of these 21 'fake universities', a maximum of eight are functioning in Delhi, according to the website.

The Minister said that to prevent these institutions from defrauding and cheating students by misrepresenting themselves as "Universities," the Central government has requested Chief Secretaries of all the states and Union Territories to take legal action for the closure of these institutions.

In a reply to questions from Sudheer Gupta and Dhairyasheel Sambhajirao Mane, the Minister said that apart from issuing public notices for general awareness through social media and UGC website for cautioning the general public, students, parents and other stakeholders, other steps have also been taken by the UGC/government against such 'fake Universities.'

He said that FIRs have been lodged against several self-styled institutions/universities and show cause notices/warning notices have also been issued to the unauthorised institutes awarding invalid degrees.

In response to another question, Minister of State for Education Sukanta Majumdar told the Lok Sabha that there has been an overall increase of Rs 2875.29 crore in the budget allocation to the Department of Higher Education in 2024-25 as compared to 2023-24.

The Department's total budget in 2024-25 was Rs 47,619.77 crore as compared to Rs 44,744.48 crore in 2023-24, MoS Majumdar said in reply to a question from Dushyant Singh.

In response to a question on public expenditure on institutions of higher education in Rajasthan, the MoS said that a total of Rs 556.86 crore has been released in FY 2024-25 till November 30, 2024, to three Centrally Funded Higher Education Institutions in Rajasthan, namely IIT Jodhpur, Malaviya National Institute of Technology Jaipur and Central University of Rajasthan.

Further, Rs 535.99 crore was provided for setting up IIM Udaipur and IIIT Kota in Rajasthan, the MoS said.

/IANS