UDF for maintaining the status quo on admissions

UDF for maintaining the status quo on admissions

Thiruvananthapuram: The high-power committee of the United Democratic Front (UDF) has taken a political decision to retain last year's status quo in admissions to self-financing professional engineering and medical colleges during this year even while upholding its original 50:50 norm on government and management quotas.

In the case of admissions to postgraduate medical courses, the UDF made it clear that there would be no compromise on the 50:50 quota norm this year. However, UDF convener P.P. Thankachan, who addressed a press conference, appeared to be ambivalent on the issue of the divergent demands of the Inter-Church Council and the managements of other self-financing professional colleges in relation to the quota norm and the fee structure. The issue would be sorted out by the Cabinet subcommittee which was in the process of holding discussions with the managements of these institutions.

Future talks

Even though Mr. Thankachan did not explicitly state it, the UDF's decision to uphold its original 50:50 norm is apparently meant to give it a leverage when it initiates comprehensive discussions with self-financing colleges soon after the current year's admissions close in the hope of finding a lasting solution to the vexed issue. He said the Left Democratic Front (LDF) could not find a solution to the problem during the last five years it was in office. Since the new Ministry had assumed office at a time when admissions to these institutions had just begun, there was no other way out but to maintain last year's status quo as a temporary measure.

Mr. Thankachan said the moves of certain self-financing medical colleges to carry out admissions to 100 per cent of the seats could not be justified because these institutions had agreed to the 50:50 norm while seeking sanction for the courses. He was sure that the Cabinet subcommittee would be able to bring about a consensus on this issue through discussions.

Ministers attend meet

The government would not give in to unjust demands, he said when the differences among various managements were brought to his notice. All the members of the Cabinet panel attended Wednesday's high-power committee meeting. According to reliable information, the Indian Union Muslim League and Health Minister Adoor Prakash took a strong position against the moves of the Inter-Church Council to break ranks to admit students to 100 per cent of the seats.

Mr. Thankachan said that news reports about a large number of schools seeking No-Objection Certificates (NOC) for CBSE and ICICE courses were baseless. According to official figures, the State government had before it only 239 applications that had been processed during the previous LDF government. Of this, 154 applications were before the government and 85 before the Director of Public Instruction. He said the NOC would be given only if all the conditions stipulated by the CBSE were fully complied with.

The UDF meeting decided to depute one Minister each to each of the 14 districts to make the UDF government's 100-day programme a success.