Kerala - Kochi   

Cooperate with Government, Antony tells managements

Staff Reporter

KOCHI: Union Defence Minister A.K. Antony has called upon the private professional college managements to cooperate with the State Government to resolve the issues in the education sector amicably.

Inaugurating the silver jubilee celebrations of the Kerala Students' Union (KSU) here on Monday, Mr. Antony said that those educational institutions which did not respect social justice cannot function in the State.

"The decisions of the courts and the National Minorities Commission may be legally right. Following the decisions of these bodies, these institutions can make admissions to all the seats on their own. But this is Kerala. No institution which does not respect social and community justice can function here," he said referring to the recent decisions of the commission granting minority status to some institutions.

`UDF approach correct'

Time had proved that the basic approach of the UDF to the self-financing institutions was correct.

The UDF policy was to allot seats on 50:50 proportion and fee concessions to students in the Government quota, he said.

Even after the opening of self-financing institutions, no Government institution was closed. Instead, the Government institutions increased the seats.

Nearly 5,000 students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Communities got admitted to various professional colleges.

It was the educational lobbies that suffered loss following the opening of the self-financing institutions, he said.

Mr. Antony called upon the Congress leadership to set free the Youth Congress and the KSU to function.

The party leaders should not insist that their favourites should get plump posts in feeder organisations. Youngsters who dared to point out the mistakes of the leaders should come up, he said.

KSU State president Hybi Eden presided.

Congress leaders including Leader of the Opposition Oommen Chandy, Ramesh Chennithala, P.P. Thankachan, V.M. Sudheeran, A.C. Jose, Ajay Tharayil, M.I. Shanavas, Benny Behannan and M.M. Hassan and National Students Union president Nadeem Javed attended.

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