Residents demand restart of admission to aided courses in D.B. Jain College

College stopped admission to 10 aided programmes two years ago

Residents and activists from various organisations staged a protest in front of D.B. Jain College in Thoraipakkam on Monday demanding that the college restart admission to its aided programmes.

The college has not been admitting students for the past two years in seven of its undergraduate and three postgraduate programmes, all of them in the aided section.

A couple of days ago, teachers from the aided section went on fast at Valluvar Kottam demanding that the Higher Education department expedite the appointment of a special officer to oversee the functioning of the college.

The Madras High Court had directed the college to appoint an officer. However, seven months later nothing had happened, a teacher pointed out.

Teachers said in the last 15 years, the college had not appointed faculty to aided sections.

R. Bharathi, district secretary of Students Federation of India, said the college had not admitted students for the past two years to seven UG programmes, including B. Com. (General); B. Com. Corporate Secretaryship; B.A. Economics; and B.Sc. Mathematics. Similarly students had not been admitted to M. Com. General; M.A. Economics, and M.Sc. Mathematics.

The government permits an intake of 70 students for each UG programme and a maximum 40 students for each PG programme. The protesters said the college would offer an opportunity for higher education to underprivileged families, most of whom had been relocated from across the city.

“Students from Sholinganallur, Thoraipakkam, Kannagi Nagar, Perumbakkam, Kallukuttai, Semmancehri and Neelankarai will benefit as the fee is low in aided section,” Mr. Bharathi said.

Members from the women’s wing of the Marxist Communist Party of India; D.B. Jain Padukappu Iyakkam, Democratic Youth Federation of India, CITU, AIDWA and UNITE, participated in the protest.

A representative of the management said the college had a court order that they could surrender the courses under aided programmes. He said the management had not appointed any faculty to the aided programmes for the past 20 years.