The Bihar Legislative Council today passed seven bills including the Bihar Private University (Amendment) Bill, 2017 which paved way for running private universities from rented premises in the state. State Education minister Ashok Choudhary introduced the bill proposing to allow private universities to function from rented premises with a built up area of 5,000 sqm up to two years till construction of permanent infrastructure. Countering BJP member Vinod Narayan Jha's assertion that not a single university has shown interest in opening its campus in Bihar, Choudhary said the state government has received 14 proposals for setting up universities. Out of them, the government has set up a committee to look into the Detailed Project Report of 12 proposals. Three universities would start running their courses soon and the government has decided to allow such universities to run their academic activities from rented accommodation for two years if they fulfil all requisite criteria, he said. "Our aim is to increase the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in universities. So, we opened the door for private institutions. At present, the state's GER is 13.9 per cent against the national average of 24 per cent. The government intends to push that up to 30 per cent by 2020," he said. State Parliamentary Affairs minister Shrawan Kumar introduced the Bihar State Legislature (Members' salaries, allowances and pension) (amendment) Bill, 2017 which was passed by the legislative Assembly yesterday. An amendment has been proposed in the preamble of the State Legislature (Members' salaries, allowances and pension) (Amendment) Act to incorporate provision of pension for retired members of the bicameral state legislature. The House passed Bihar Farmers and Rural Areas Development Agency (Repeal) Bill, 2017, the Patna University (Amendment) Bill, 2017, the Bihar State University (Amendment) Bill, 2017 and the Bihar Appropriation Excess Expenditure Bill, 2017. The Legislative Council also passed the Bihar Protection of Interest of Dep