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KPCC for consensus on colleges issue

Staff Reporter

KANNUR: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala has said that the State Government should pursue consensus approach to ensure social control over self-financing professional colleges.

Inaugurating the State conference of the Kerala Private College Ministerial Staff Association (KPCMSA) here on Saturday, Mr. Chennithala said that neither the Congress nor the United Democratic Front (UDF) was happy about the recent court judgements on admission and fee structure in self-financing colleges.

The Government should rather go for forging consensus with the managements to ensure social control over them, he said.

Welcoming the Government decision to convene an all-party meeting to discuss the issue on May 14, the KPCC president said the higher education sector was facing uncertainty thanks to the Government's initiatives to drag the issues into courts.

Prospectus of institutions in the professional higher education sector was yet to be released in the State, he said adding that uncertainty prevailed even in matters concerning 27 per cent reservation as well as fee structure.

50:50 formula

Reiterating that the Congress and the UDF were still in favour of the 50:50 formula proposed by the previous Government led by A.K. Antony, Mr. Chennithala said there could not be any practical way to end the uncertainty other than this formula.

The KPCC president also said that the autonomy of universities in the State was facing threat as efforts were on to make the universities an extension of the Education Ministry. Recalling that the LDF, which had opposed the previous UDF Government's moves to introduce the Higher Education Council as envisaged in the National Education Policy introduced by the Rajiv Gandhi Government, he said that the Higher Education Council conceived by the LDF Government would curtail the Vice-Chancellors' powers and the universities' funds.

Observing that recurrent serious irregularities in the conduct of examinations were leading to erosion of the university's credibility, he said the alleged violation of norms by the University of Kerala in enrolling the Chief Minister's son for its Ph.D. programme should be investigated into. He said there was a public impression that the Chief Minister's son had bypassed proper procedures to secure registration for the Ph.D. programme. The Chief Minister should clear the `smoke-screen' by ordering an inquiry, he said.

Kannur municipal chairman K. Upendran presided. Former Ministers K.C. Venugopal and K.P. Nooruddin, KPCC general secretaries M.K. Raghavan and Benny Behanan, district Congress president P. Ramakrishnan, Congress leaders Satheeshan Pacheni and association president N. Narayanan were present at the inaugural session.

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