The Hindu : NOCs for all 64 B.Ed. colleges to be cancelled

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jan 28, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

NOCs for all 64 B.Ed. colleges to be cancelled

By Our Staff Reporter

KOCHI, JAN. 27. The State Government has decided to cancel the No Objection Certificates (NOC) granted to 64 institutions for starting self-financing B.Ed. colleges and review the issue of granting fresh NOCs, according to an affidavit filed by the Government before the Kerala High Court today in some cases challenging the decision to grant NOC to 96 colleges.

The affidavit filed by K. Mohandas, Principal Secretary, Higher Education, said that in the background of a large number of writ petitions filed against the grant of NOCs for B.Ed. colleges, the Government was willing to review the issue in its entirety and on the basis of any suggestions or guidelines to be issued by the court in the case.

When a contempt of court petition filed by the National Training College, Thiruvananthapuram, and others against the Government was taken up, P.C. Iype, State Attorney, submitted before Justice C.N. Ramachandran Nair that the Government had decided to review the grant of NOCs subject to the approval of the High Court. He also submitted before the court that there were no wilful lapses or negligence on the part of the Government in this regard.

(The contempt case was in the background of the Government violating an earlier High Court direction to grant NOC to only 75 B.Ed. colleges.)

In an affidavit filed earlier in the day in response to the same contempt petition, the Principal Secretary said that considering the complaints on issuing NOC to 11 educational agencies including the Buddha College in Alappuzha, the grant of NOCs to these applicants had been deferred for detailed verification.

The affidavit also pointed out that the expert committee had given importance to the infrastructure facilities and the investment made by the applicants. This had resulted in complaints that ineligible persons with no experience in the educational sector were coming forward to set up training colleges and that those in other lines of business were diversifying into the field of education.

As for a direction to the Principal Secretary to produce the report, if any, prepared by Asha Thomas, former Director of Collegiate Education, the affidavit said that Ms. Thomas had functioned as chairman and convener of the expert committee from July 5 to October 27, 2003.

However, she had not prepared or submitted any report to the Government during the period.

The cases were adjourned to Friday for further hearing.

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