Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

‘Minority students discriminated against’

Special Correspondent

Cross-subsidy not acceptable: Inter-Church Council

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Chairman of the Inter-Church Council for Education Archbishop Joseph Powathil has come out against, what he described as, the denial of the right of eligible students of the minority communities to study in colleges started by those communities by paying a reasonable fee.

In a statement issued here on Wednesday, he said while the Government wants students from its merit list to be charged concessional fee in 50 per cent seats, it was making additional impost at three levels on the Christian minority. They consisted of the tax paid to the Government, the huge amount invested by the community in setting up the colleges and the expenditure incurred for teaching their own students and the students from the Government’s list.

This was injustice and was aimed at wrecking the minorities socially and financially, he said. The Archbishop contended that it was for imparting cultural, religious and moral training to their children as per the provisions of the Constitution that the minorities had started colleges by mobilising funds and taking huge loans.

The imposition of the cost of education of the students in the Government list on them was unfair and unjust and tantamount to harassment of the minorities. The court too had made it clear that such cross-subsidy was unacceptable.

The minorities considered their colleges also as fora for imparting religious and moral education. It was therefore absolutely necessary for giving admission to the eligible children in these colleges. Along with them, maximum students from the other communities, particularly the backward sections, would be given admission.

The Archbishop said the cooperation of all was necessary for providing facilities for poor students. The major responsibility lay with the Government. The managements had offered to admit students on scholarship basis to 25 per cent of the seats.

It should also be possible to provide educational loans on low interest. Instead of doing that, the imposition of the entire burden on the heads of the minorities was injustice, he added.

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