A majority of students of a government degree college offering B.A. and B.Com. courses, who were refusing to attend classes at Belandur after the government shifted the college from Kaniyoor, have joined Vivekananda College at Puttur.
The college at Puttur, which is a government-aided private one, is 25 km away from Kaniyoor.
The row between two political parties, or as a college teacher put it – “between two ideologies” – had resulted in the students either refusing to attend or “forced not to attend” classes at Belandur which is 2.5 km from Kaniyoor.
Sources said that of 151 students at the college, 117 students joined the Vivekananda College on July 15 – which is around 77 per cent of the students.
Confirming this to The Hindu, the principal of Vivekananda College said, “The college admitted them in the best interest of students on the last day prescribed by the university for transfer of admissions and fresh admissions. The students paid the transfer fee at Mangalore University and the fee prescribed by the college. They have not been given any relaxation.”
The Principal of Government First Grade College at Belandur, Ivan Lobo, said that 28 students were now studying at Belandur. The college has five permanent teachers and 16 guest teachers.
Sources said the remaining six students were thinking of joining a college at Savanur.
Meanwhile, the college at Belandur might face the threat of closure if it did not meet the minimum requirement of 150 students, sources said.
They said the government would not close the college this year considering the prevailing condition, but the threat of closure would be imminent in the next academic year if 150 students did not study in the college.
Sources said the government opened the college at Kaniyoor in 2009 after shifting it from Melukote, Mandya district, as the college there was facing dearth of minimum number of students. It was shifted from Kaniyoor, where it was functioning from a school building and a private building, to the premises of a government school at Belandur as the college could not get a site of its own at Kaniyoor. A five-acre plot has been made available to it now at Belandur.
Sources said the authorities of Kaniyoor math have given in writing to Sullia MLA S. Angara, heading the college development committee, that it was ready to spare 10 acres for the college at Kaniyoor now.
