India, March 4 -- The Assam cabinet on Tuesday decided that any new private university being set up in the state will first have to get security clearance and not indulge in religious conversions, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said.

"From now on any new private university which comes up in the state will first have to secure clearances from the home and political departments in view of national security. Secondly, these private universities will have to be secular, and they shouldn't indulge in religious conversion both directly and indirectly," chief minister Sarma said after the cabinet meeting.

If any violations of these conditions are witnessed, then the licences of those universities will be cancelled, the chief minister said,...