Kerala - Kannur   

SFI warns of stir against private managements

Staff Reporter

Seeks Mohammed panel's intervention

KANNUR: Students Federation of India (SFI) general secretary K.K. Ragesh has warned of an agitation to stop the admission procedures being initiated by self-financing professional colleges which he says are a violation of the Supreme Court's direction for a centralised single-window admission mechanism.

Mr. Ragesh said at a press conference here on Saturday that the admission procedures started by the private managements in the State under the consortium of managements were against Supreme Court guidelines. The individual managements and the consortium were asking the students to apply for admission in each institution separately. A centralised allotment system involved admission on the basis of the option of the students from the rank list prepared by the consortium after holding an entrance examination, he said adding this norm of the Supreme Court was thrown to the winds. The SFI leader urged the P.A. Mohammad committee to stop the admission procedures. New norms for admission to self-financing professional colleges in the State should be drafted.

He said the demand of private medical college managements to fix the annual fee at Rs.4 lakh for all seats was unheard of in States like Karnataka where 50 per cent of seats were set apart for merit students under a concessional fee structure. The demand for huge fee was also against the Supreme Court direction that educational institutions should not be run for profiteering, he said adding the demand amounted to accepting capitation fee. He called upon the Mohammad committee to initiate criminal procedures against the private medical college managements under the Kerala Professional College Act. Stating that the adamant stand of a section of the managements was the major obstacle to finding a solution to the self-financing college admission issue through discussion with Church leaders, Mr. Ragesh said the minority-run self-financing institutions in the State were not entitled to have minority status as they functioned for profit. As majority of such institutions were run by the minority communities, the sanctioning of minority status to all of them would disturb social equilibrium in the State. Access to admission would be restricted to a rich section of the minority communities, he added.

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