Panel to monitor 'misuse' of minority status sought

By Our Staff Reporter

HYDERABAD, SEPT. 6. The city unit of the BJP has appealed to the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, to constitute a high-level `status monitoring committee' to look into the ``misuse of the minority status of colleges by vested interests.''

In a memorandum submitted to Dr. Joshi, a copy of which was released to the press here on Thursday, Mr. Ch. Ramachandra Reddy, president, charged that some minority educational institutions had become ``big money minting businesses'' as they were collecting huge sums as fees and functioning in contravention to the rules governing such a status.

He alleged that as many as 50 colleges among the recently permitted 100 professional colleges sought minority status and were displaying admission notifications. He pointed out that when the State Government tried to cancel the minority status of some colleges after irregularities in admissions were detected, the Federation of A.P. Minority Educational Institutions filed a suit in the High Court challenging the order.

The BJP leader wanted the Centre to direct the State Governments to submit a five-year data on the functioning of the minority institutions, their merits/demerits, funds spent, success rate of educated students, etc. It also voiced suspicions over the funding of some of the new `minority' colleges.

If the panel found deviations of rules in these colleges, the minority status should be removed and it should be disaffiliated from the respective university. Regular inspections should be carried out on these colleges so that they truly serve for the uplift of the backward minority sections of the society, the memorandum added.

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