Ministers defend move to implement professional education institutions Act

Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister T.B. Jayachandra and Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil defended the decision of implementing the Karnataka Professional Education Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act 2006, and said this was being done as per the directions of the Supreme Court. Speaking to presspersons in Gulbarga on Saturday, he said the State government had wanted to implement the Act during admissions to professional courses last year, but owing to paucity of time and the absence of the fee fixation committee and the admission monitoring committee as mandated by the apex court, it could not be done.

On the request of the government, Chief Justice of the Karnataka High Court has recommended the names of Justice Ajit Gunjal and Justice Jagannathan to head the fee fixation committee and the admission monitoring committee respectively. With the two panels in place, it was decided to implement the legislation for next year’s admission. Talking to The Hindu over phone from Bangalore, Dr. Patil said the government had no other option but to implement the Act to bring in transparency in the admission process and to have better control over it.

One of the major benefits of the implementation is that the entire admission process of all the seats except for the 15 per cent reserved for the NRI quota in the private colleges would come within the ambit of the Admission Monitoring Committee and any violations would result in the committee empanelling the erring college in the CET conducted by the government. Another major benefit was that admission in professional colleges run by deemed varsities would also come within the ambit of the admission monitoring committee, in which representatives of the government would also be present.

More colleges

Admitting that the State government would be losing government quota seats with subsidised fees in private professional colleges, he said various options would be considered, including opening more government medical and engineering colleges to open up opportunities for economically weaker sections.

He said the government was also considering providing financial assistance and standing guarantee for education loans and also extending financial help to students belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.

The Supreme Court had made it clear that there would not be any dual fee structure in professional colleges, he said.