Chief Minister Oommen Chandy and Education Minister P.K. Abdu Rabb will meet Union Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju and his deputy Shashi Tharoor in New Delhi on Friday to press them for the fulfilment of the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) centre at Malappuram.
Mr. Rabb, who reached New Delhi on Thursday, said they would request the Union Ministers to pressure the EFLU authorities to launch the programmes the university offered for Malappuram. “It is now for the university to take a decision,” said Mr. Rabb.
He said the State government was prompt in giving 75 acres of land for the EFLU campus at Panakkad. The EFLU authorities had announced that they would launch new programmes on the Panakkad campus in the current academic year. However, the EFLU authorities backtracked from their decision by refusing to begin programmes at Panakkad. The EFLU decision sparked a series of protests by different student and youth organisations, pressurising the government to intervene in the matter.
The grapevine is that EFLU backtracked from its decision to launch programmes at Panakkad in the wake of the involvement of a section in the Congress opposing the dominance of the Indian Union Muslim League, especially in Malappuram.
Mr. Rabb said that as a Minister from the State, he was duty-bound to convince the Union Ministers of the importance of launching the EFLU campus at Malappuram, especially after the State government had already handed over the land for it.
