KANNUR: The pro-Communist Party of India (Marxist) Vidyabhyasa Samithi has said that opponents of the new enactment on professional self-financing institutions are colluding with commercial interests in the education sector.

Samithi chairman M.V. Jayarajan said at a press conference here on Monday that the new Act that upholds social justice, educational values and commitment to weaker sections among the population would bring peace and hope on campuses that had witnessed unrest during previous academic years due to the wrong educational policies of the previous United Democratic Front (UDF) Government.

The Act not only ensured the UDF Government's "two self-financing colleges are equal to one Government college policy" but also banned all kinds of capitation fee by fixing admission fees with clear provisions, he said.

Mr. Jayarajan said that the Act also introduced guidelines for determining the minority status of an institution. The moves of those who had supported the Act in the Assembly and opposed it outside were puzzling and politically motivated, the former MLA said.

Those who were terming the Act anti-minority formed just a minority among the minorities, he added. Only those gripped by the ghost of the past liberation struggle were now entertaining the fantasy of inciting believers through false campaigns, he said.

Mr. Jayarajan said that while the missionaries and other agencies had started educational institutions in the State with social commitment, the previous UDF Government deviated from this objective by providing all facilities for those willing to invest in the educational sector in expectation of huge profits.

Stating that efforts were on to prevent the minority communities from moving closer to the Left, Mr. Jayarajan said that the vested interests who opposed the Act that would ensure higher education to the poor among the minorities should be isolated.

No pastor letter was read out in any church when the previous UDF Government had denied minority status to self-financing institutions started by minority communities including the Malankara Orthodox Church, he added.

Seminar planned

He said that the samithi would organise a seminar on `self-financing professional college Act and social justice' at the Chamber Hall here on July 24. The former Supreme Court judge K.T. Thomas and Kannur University Vice-Chancellor P. Chandramohan would be among those who will speak at the seminar.

The samithi would also conduct door-to-door campaign to disseminate the progressive aspects of the Act among the people, he added.

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