No more government engineering colleges

Five co-operative spinning mills to be modernised

The State government is not in favour of establishing any more government engineering colleges in the State, Minister for Higher Education P. Palaniappan announced in the Assembly on Tuesday.

Responding to a plea from K. Gopalsamy, All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam, for a government engineering college in his Rajapalayam constituency, the Minister said that it entailed capital expenditure of Rs.100 crore and annual recurring expenditure of Rs.33 crore. The government sanctioned an engineering college last year and two engineering colleges this year.

525 colleges

Mr. Palaniappan said there were 525 engineering colleges in the State, including nine government colleges and three aided colleges. All of them were governed by the ‘single-window' scheme for admission. “As of now, the seats available in these colleges are sufficient.” If at all there was a demand for more seats, the government could consider a proposal. The AIADMK government established an engineering college at Bargur in 1996, he said.

The Minister said that the State permitted 400 new courses during the past 10 months. Now it had not only 10 universities but also five post-graduate centres.

When a member lamented that some of the constituent colleges of the universities were running short of funds, the Minister responded that when constituent colleges were sanctioned by the government, it had to foot the bill for these institutions, including for infrastructure and staff, for the initial five years. “The understanding is that these colleges will be taken care of by the university after that period.”

Five co-operative spinning mills in the State will be modernised at an estimated cost of Rs.104 crore, Minister for Handlooms and Textiles P. Chendur Pandian said.

He was responding to a plea from V. Ponnupandi and M. Arumugham (CPI) and A. Soundararajan (CPI-M) to reopen the 13 co-operative spinning mills that have been closed down.

When a number of members kept on pressing the government for reopening these units as they involved the livelihood of thousands of families, all that the Minister would say was, “If possible, they will be reopened.”