Tamil Nadu   

Government to take over 65 per cent of seats in professional colleges

Special Correspondent

Private colleges can fill the remaining 35 per cent on their own, says Minister

K. Ponmudi. — File photo

CHENNAI: A bill enabling the Government to take over 65 per cent of the seats in professional colleges will be introduced in the current session, Higher Education Minister K.Ponmudi informed the Assembly on Thursday.

Private colleges can admit students on their own to the remaining 35 per cent,he said in reply to D. Jayakumar (AIADMK).

Mr. Jayakumar, who was Law Minister in the earlier AIADMK government, said that it was his party which got 50 per cent of seats from the private law college in Salem for admitting students under government quota. This was no longer the case. V.T.Kalairajan (AIADMK) said that the fee in the college was very high.

Intervening, Mr.Ponmudi said that the AIADMK government might have managed to get a few seats in one college, but the DMK government managed to get an unprecedented number of seats from engineering colleges for the government quota. Now, it would enact a law for all professional colleges.

Law Minister I. Periasami said private professional law colleges offered to admit students from the backward classes on their own. But the Government had not accepted the proposal and hence they had approached the court. The Government would consult legal experts to explore ways to vacate the stay, he said.

Free power for TVs

Mr. Kalairajan pointed out that the Electricity Board did not allow additional electrical appliance in huts where the one bulb scheme was in use. (The EB provides free power for one bulb). What use would the free colour television be for such households, he asked. Electricity Minister Arcot N.Veerasamy said free power would be made available for televisions in huts.

`Restore land to owners'

K. Jayakumar (Congress) wanted the Government to take steps to restore all panchami land (land originally assigned to Dalits) to its original owners. He said 13,000 acres of such land was usurped. Of this, only 686 acres was taken over by the Government and restored to the original owners. Successive governments issued nine orders relating to the taking over of such land, but this has not translated to action.

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