A group of 10 parents who claim to represent 80 students of the first year B.Tech. courses at the TOMS College of Engineering, Mattakkara, on Friday met Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan seeking his assistance for the transfer of these students to other engineering colleges in the State.
One parent E.V. Prakash who met Mr. Vijayan told The Hindu that the group demanded the arrest of college chairman Tom T. Joseph for his “illegal actions” and for harassing students in the college.
The college had altered the fee structure for B.Tech. courses once the admission was completed. The management charges hefty fines from students on the flimsiest of reasons. For instance, when the college did not grant Christmas holidays, some students expressed a wish to go home.
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The management allowed the students to go home after getting from them a written statement that they wished to go home. When the students came back, the management demanded a fine of Rs.3,000 from each student if they wished to continue in the college, Mr. Prakash said.
The parent told the Chief Minister that even though the college had no PTA, it used to regularly collect a PTA fund. There was even a one-time language fee even though no one knows what it was being used for. There was no chemical lab in the college even though a lab fee was collected.
“For the past six months no one has seen the college Principal. There is no warden in the ladies’ hostel. Over the years, there have been five suspicious deaths in the college. We pointed out all this to the Chief Minister,” Mr. Prakash said.
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The Chief Minister told the parents that their complaints would be looked into once the Education Minister came back from the ongoing State School Arts Festival.