TN CM warns Self-Financing engineering colleges again

Chennai, July 17 (UNI) Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi today warned the self-financing engineering colleges against collecting capitation fees and tuition fees, more than the rates fixed by the government.

In a statement here, he said minister for Higher Education K Ponmudi had already warned de-recognition and criminal action against the self-financing colleges, which collected capitation fee and enhanced the tuition fees.

This was the stand of the DMK government, he said.

He said Mr Ponmudi's announcement that the state government had constituted two monitoring committees-one for looking into the complaints preferred by the students against collection of more fees and the other to monitor the admission process in private colleges was not an eye-wash.

Some political parties had the wrong notion that the DMK government was acting in favour of the self-financing colleges, but they should realise that these colleges had gone to the court, protesting against various actions taken against them by the government, Mr Karunanidhi pointed out.

Asserting that the government would not ''pretend to be acting against the self-financing colleges'' to get benefit from them, he said ''the government will prove its intentions through its actions.

Only to put an end to the practice of private colleges collecting capitation fees, the government has proposed to open engineering colleges in large numbers from next year, he said.

The government would in no way help the self-financing colleges and would go all out to protect the interest of the students, he said and hoped that his explanation would satisfy CPI(M) leader N Varadarajan.

UNI