The Hindu : `Clarify Government's stand on B.Ed. colleges'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 23, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

`Clarify Government's stand on B.Ed. colleges'

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JAN. 22. The deputy leader of the Opposition, Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, today said neither the Chief Minister, A. K. Antony, nor the Education Minister, Nalakath Soopy, had thought it necessary to explain the Government's position on the allegations levelled by him in the State Assembly against the Education Department.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, copies of which were issued to the media, Mr. Balakrishnan repeated the points he had raised in the Assembly and reiterated his demand for an inquiry by a sitting judge of the High Court into the controversies surrounding the sanctioning of B.Ed. colleges in the State.

He said the charge he had made was that both corruption and nepotism were involved in the sanctioning of B.Ed. colleges. He said he had listed the reasons behind his conviction on the involvement of Mr. Soopy and his party, the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML), in the affair. "Mr. Soopy did not even try to deny this charge," he said.

The directive of the High Court, in its judgement in April last year, was to sanction 75 B. Ed. colleges in the order of eligibility of the applicants. The expert committee that scrutinised the applications subsequently recommended 75 applications. The Cabinets decision too was to sanction only 75 institutions. However, the Education Department ignored all these and issued no-objection certificates (NOCs) to 96 institutions.

When the issue became a controversy, Mr. Soopy's explanation was that the additional 21 institutions were sanctioned only because of the pressure from the Chief Minister and others and that he was helpless in the whole issue. Mr. Antony too had confessed in the Assembly that he had suggested including five reputed institutions in the list. He, however, did not explain whether his suggestion was to include these five institutions in the list of 75 applications short-listed for NOCs, or whether the five were to be added to the list of 75 for which the Cabinet had given its approval, Mr. Balakrishnan said.

He said several applicants had come out in the open alleging that IUML leaders or staff members of Ministers had demanded bribes from them for the NOCs. Mr. Balakrishnan mentioned four specific cases in which applicants had submitted written complaints to the Chief Minister alleging that bribes were demanded from them.

He said it had also become clear that several leaders of the IUML had submitted applications for starting B.Ed. colleges. And, quite a large number of the sanctioned ones belonged to the IUML. "The IUML leader and former MLA, Yunus Kunju and his children have received three B.Ed. colleges. Mr. Soopy's brother, Nalakath Basheer and the Local Administration Minister, Cherkulam Abdulla's brother are among the many IUML people who have obtained NOCs," he alleged.

Mr. Balakrishnan said that, from these clear evidences, it was quite clear that the B.Ed. college issue was steeped in corruption and nepotism.

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