The Hindu : Kerala News : Ordinance to fix fee structure soon

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 11, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Ordinance to fix fee structure soon

By Our Special Correspondent

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 10. The Cabinet has decided to promulgate an ordinance to fix fees for 50 per cent merit quota in self-financing professional colleges on a par with that of Government colleges.

The Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, told presspersons after the Cabinet meeting today that a committee headed by the Law Minister, K.M. Mani, had been constituted to draw up the ordinance urgently. The Education Minister, the Health Minister, the Advocate General, the Law Secretary, the Principal Secretary (Higher Education) and the Health Secretary would be its members.

Mr. Antony said the Cabinet had decided to recommend to the Governor the convening of the Assembly from June 25 to August 5. There were precedents of issuing ordinances even after making such recommendations when the matter was urgent. The Cabinet wanted the ordinance to be promulgated after its next meeting on Wednesday. This would help ease tension in the educational sector and avoid delay in admissions.

Recalling that the Government had held talks with the political parties, managements and students to arrive at a lawful and just decision in the matter, Mr. Antony noted that the only practical solution appeared to be to have lower fees for merit quota.

He said that many were criticising the sanctioning of self-financing colleges without realising that it had increased the opportunities for students with no reduction of seats available in Government institutions.

He said the Cabinet had resolved that the MLA's fund should not be used for works in aided schools. The norms introduced for use of the MLA's fund were the same as those of the MP's fund and it was adopted, thinking that there would not be any objection from any quarters. The MP's fund could be used for development of aided schools. He said the Cabinet had given the green signal for starting of six more self-financing engineering colleges in the State. Of them, three would be set up by the Institute of Human Resources Development in Electronics at Pallippuram, near Cherthala, Kottarakara and Attingal. The private agencies, which were given clearance, were the management of College of Engineering, Kallooppara, Pathanamthitta; Vedavyasa Institute of Technology, Malappuram; and Sarabhai Institute of Science and Technology, Kattakkada.

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