THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The managements of self-financing engineering colleges have expressed their reservations about the penalty provisions in the Bill on professional colleges which was piloted in the Assembly on Friday.

A delegation of the Kerala Self-Financing Engineering College Managements Association, led by its president G.P.C. Nayar, met Education Minister M.A. Baby and Additional Chief Secretary P.J. Thomas on Wednesday and expressed their concerns about certain provisions in the Bill.

The delegation first met Mr. Thomas and then Mr. Baby to apprise them of their doubts about the Bill.

The delegation is learnt to have objected to the clause that whoever contravenes the provisions of the Bill will be punished for three years' imprisonment and a fine of Rs.50 lakhs. The managements objected to the conditions which tend to give them stringent punishment, sources said.

The management representatives are reported to have said that they were willing to make admissions to 50 per cent seats on merit and admissions to the remaining seats is to be made either from the list prepared by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations or an examination conducted by the consortium of the managements. They assured the Minister that the admission process would be made transparent.

The delegation told Mr. Thomas and Mr. Baby that they would not accept the fees rate fixed by the Government. It sought to delete the section which speaks about the "experiences of mal-administration of the entrance test held by the Consortium of Private Professional Colleges in the State" last year as it tends to cast aspersions on the honesty of the management. They also demanded the Minister to include the 35,000 students who appeared for test conducted by the consortium and were disqualified for admissions, sources said.

Mr. Baby told the delegation that he would discuss their suggestions at the Cabinet meeting.

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