The Hindu : Kerala News : Student groups threaten stir

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 09, 2004

Kerala

Kerala

Student groups threaten stir

By Our Staff Reporter

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, JUNE 8 . Various student organisations have threatened to launch an agitation if the Government did not immediately come up with a legislation to regulate the fee in self-financing professional colleges in the State.

Leaders of the Left students organisations said they would disrupt the counselling process scheduled to commence on July 1, if the Government failed to put in place a legislation in this matter.

Talking to mediapersons after holding discussions on the matter with the Chief Minister, A.K. Antony, at the Thycaud Guest House here today, student leaders said they would put aside their political differences in order to ensure that private managements do not exploit the students by charging exorbitant fee for engineering and medical courses.

The State general secretary of the Students Federation of India (SFI), T.V. Rajesh, said his organisation had demanded that the Government take immediate steps to ensure that self-financing professional colleges in the government sector charge the same fee as that of government-run professional colleges.

"We have asked the Government to immediately issue an ordinance to this effect. We have also demanded that the proposed entrance examination of private managements on June 13, be postponed," he said.

The student organisations also demanded that admissions to all categories of seats in the self-financing colleges in the State be made only from the rank prepared by the Commissioner for Entrance Examinations (CEE) based on the common entrance examination conducted by the CEE.

Further, the right to decide the fee to the management quota in private self-financing colleges should rest only with the Government; such fee should be solely calculated on the basis of the recurring expenditure incurred by private managements, Mr. Rajesh said.

The State president of the Kerala Students Union (KSU), Vishnunath, said the Government should take firm steps to end the "arrogant attitude of private managements in opposing the directives of the Supreme Court and those of the K.T. Thomas Commission in the matter of self-financing colleges."

The UDF student organisations would strongly oppose any move to grant the private managements a free hand in deciding the fee structure, he said.

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