Assembly enacts legislation to regulate admissions, fees

Chennai, Sep 2 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Assembly today enacted a comprehensive legislation, providing for the regulation of admission and determination of fees in self-financing professional educational institutions in the state.

Replying to the debate on the Bill, Minister for Higher Education K Ponmudi said the Bill was carefully drafted after taking the consensus of all those concerned, so that it was not struck down in a court of law.

According to the statement of objects and reasons, the Bill, introduced by Mr K Ponmudy, provided for constituting committees for overseeing admission and fee regulation.

Referring to former AIADMK Education Minister C V Shanmugam's suggestion that the government should specify in the Bill that the admission should be through single window system, Mr Ponmudi said the single window system was being dispensed only after realising the practical difficulties.

''The previous AIADMK government could not introduce single window system in the last three years and we have learnt a lesson from that,'' he said adding the government would ensure that the admission process was transparent, non-exploitative and based on merit.

On the fee structure, he said the government was fixing only the maximum limit of the fee as some of the self-financing colleges in rural areas were willing to offer seats for a fee less than Rs 25,000.

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