Monday, Aug 25, 2003
Monday, Aug 25, 2003 |
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Kerala
By Our Staff Reporter
At a press conference here, the Chief Minister said the Government was going in for discussions with an open mind. All-out efforts would be made to ensure that the fees were be reduced to the lowest-level possibleReplying to questions on the UDF convener, Oommen Chandy's statement the fee structure in the self-financing engineering colleges could not be altered this year, the Chief Minister said that he could not vouch for everybody's position. "What I have said is the Government's stand. The Government does not want to make the fee structure issue an LDF versus UDF issue. It wants a consensus and that is why a Cabinet sub-committee has been set up'', he said. The Chief Minister, who is leaving for New Delhi tomorrow, said he had suggested that the sub-committee need not wait for his return to complete the discussions. The Supreme Court order had upheld the Kerala Government's position that 50 per cent of the seats in the self-financing professional colleges had to be allocated on the basis of merit. As per the order, a committee headed by a retired judge of the High Court was to fix the fee structure, after taking into account the expenses involved in running such institutions. The Government would soon write to the High Court requesting it to nominate the chairman of the committee, he said.
`JPC should visit Kerala'
The Chief Minister said that the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) constituted to probe into the allegations of presence of toxic substances in Coca-Cola and Pepsi should visit Kerala also to find out the veracity of the charges. Mr. Antony said he would write to the JPC headed by Sharad Pawar requesting them to visit Kerala, particularly the Coca-Cola factory at Plachimada and its surrounding areas in Palakkad. He denied the allegations that the Government had given a clean chit to the Coca-Cola company. Asked about the reported statement of the Health Minister, P. Sankaran, in the Assembly defending the company, the Chief Minister said the statement was issued by the Health Minister based on the laboratory report. But it was after that statement the Government decided to send the samples to two nationally accredited laboratories. Such a decision was taken as there was considerable public criticism about the stand of the Government on the issue. The Chief Minister said he would hold further talks with the BJP on the rehabilitation of the people who had fled Marad after the communal killings. On the Lok Sabha byelection, he said the Congress election committee would meet in Thiruvananthapuram on August 30 to finalise the party's candidate. The Chief Minister said he would appeal to the Prime Minister to give more time to the Kerala Government to work out a solution to avoid privatisation of FACT. Kerala did not have any fresh surplus water to share with any other States. It would vehemently oppose the inter-linking projects such as the Pampa-Achankovil-Vypar linking schemes and would take steps for the early review of the agreements like the Parambikulam-Aliyar Project. The Government would announce a new water policy in January as a follow-up to the Water Preservation Bill passed recently by the Assembly.
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