Meeting in Bangalore on Friday to discuss Professional Educational Institutions Act

REPORT IN HINDU

Some people are needlessly trying to create confusion: CM

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has convened a meeting of Ministers here on Friday to discuss the pros and cons of the decision taken by the government to implement the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2006, from the next academic year.

The meeting comes in the wake of apprehensions being expressed on the possibility of the new legislation triggering a sharp increase in the fee for professional courses.

The Chief Minister told presspersons that Law Minister T.B. Jayachandra, Higher Education Minister R.V. Deshpande, Medical Education Minister Sharanprakash Patil and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H.K. Patil would participate in the meeting.

The Chief Minister termed the apprehensions and criticism of the government’s decision to implement the Act “an attempt to unnecessarily create confusion among parents and students.”

Pointing out that there was no clear picture on the possible fee level as the committee headed by a retired High Court judge, which was looking into fee determination, was yet to submit its report, Mr. Siddaramaiah wondered how some people and the media could speculate on the fee structure without any evidence.

“We ourselves (the government) do not know what will be the fee structure. But we want good things from the point of view of students and parents,” he said.

When asked if he would keep the legislation in abeyance like his predecessors if the Friday’s meeting feels that the fee may increase, the Chief Minister said it was too early to make any comments.

MLCs threaten dharna

Criticising the government’s decision to implement the Act, Janata Dal (S) MLCs Puttanna and Marithibbe Gowda have threatened to stage a dharna outside the Chief Minister’s chambers in the Vidhana Soudha on December 24 if Mr. Deshpande and Mr. Sharanprakash Patil were not dropped from the government.

At a press conference here on Thursday they demanded that Principal Secretary, Higher Education Department, Rajneesh Goel and Director of Technical Education H.U. Talwar be suspended from service for alleged irregularities in promoting lecturers in government engineering colleges.

Decision condemned

Condemning the government decision, the former Medical Education Minister Ramachandra Gowda on Thursday demanded that the Act be scrapped.

He said the Chief Minister should convene an emergency session of the legislature to discuss the CET issue. “This Act is not in the interest of students. Let the Legislative Assembly discuss and formulate a new Bill or amend the existing Act,” he said.

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