The BJP on Tuesday termed the government’s decision to implement the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Fixation of Fee) Act, 2006 from the next academic year for admissions to medical, engineering and dental courses “a total sell-out of seats to private college managements.”
BJP spokesperson and former Higher Education Minister C.T. Ravi told presspersons here that the BJP had taken serious exception to the way in which the agreement between the State government and managements of private professional colleges on seat sharing and fee structure was arrived at.
The government’s ‘unilateral’ decision to implement the Act was nothing but a “daylight robbery” of seats by private colleges, he said.
There are nearly 200 private engineering colleges in the State with an intake of 80,000 students a year. The decision to conduct the Common Entrance Test for allotment of seats only in government colleges would lead to denial of 49,000 government-quota engineering seats in private colleges. Government engineering colleges would admit only 5,000 students, he said. Private colleges would charge exorbitant fees, and the fees would vary depending on the availability of infrastructure in colleges, Mr. Ravi said.
Both Minister of State for Medical Education Sharan Prakash Patil and Minister for Higher Education R.V. Deshpande had succumbed to the private colleges lobby, he alleged.
Once the Act was implemented, the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMEDK) would conduct entrance test and indulge in all kinds of malpractices, he alleged.
Stating that the government had failed to protect the interests of meritorious students, the BJP leader said the implementation of the Act would be “dangerous” for higher education.
‘Approach apex court’
To safeguard the interests of students, Mr. Ravi urged the government to file a petition in the Supreme Court to keep the implementation of the Act in abeyance.
