Congress accuses LDF Govt. of playing with students' future

Kochi, Aug 26 (UNI) Describing the Supreme Court verdict rejecting the Kerala Government appeal on the self-financing professional college issue as a ''serious setback'' for the LDF government, Congress leaders today said the government had put the students' fate into jeopardy by its prolonged litigation on the issue.

Talking to reporters here, Leader of the Opposition and former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said the government's obstinacy had put the future of thousands of students at stake. Urging the government not to go in for any more legal cases, he said urgent steps should be taken to ensure that the students do not lose one year.

Observing that the Supreme Court had accepted the 50:50 ratio of government and management seats in private professional colleges, mooted by the earlier UDF Government, Mr Chandy said if the LDF government had also accepted this and not gone in for litigation to enforce the new Self-Financing Colleges Regulation Act, which provided for higher government quota in private colleges, the present situation would not have come about.

Mr Chandy was talking to reporters after inaugurating a seminar, organised by the Indian Lawyers Congress on ''Hostile Criticism and Threat to Judiciary and Police Harassment and Custodial Death''.

In his inaugural speech, Mr Chandy said that the system of checks and balances between the executive, legislature and judiciary was the key to parliamentary democracy. The three wings should work with mutual respect and understanding.

Earlier, addressing a press conference here, Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala said that the government would now have to conduct afresh the counselling for students for professional college admissions.

He demanded that students losing their seats in the re-counselling should be accommodated by increasing the number of seats in government colleges.

On the P A Mohammad Committee, set up by the government to oversee the admission by private medical colleges, Mr Chennithala claimed that the committee was ''packed with the fellow travellers of the Left'' who will be inclined to give a report against the private college managements.

In case the committee gives an adverse report, the managements would again seek recourse to the courts and the students would be further victimised. Instead of going in for any fresh cases, the matter should be resolved through talks between the government and the managements, he added.

Mr Chennithala described as ''impractical'' the demand by CPM general secretary Prakash Karat that the Central Government bring forth a uniform, central law to regulate admissions and fee in private higher education colleges all over the country.

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