Council says Government not implementing court orders
Kochi: The Kerala Catholic Bishops’ Council (KCBC) here on Saturday decided to depute its education committee headed by Archbishop Joseph Powathil to hold talks with the Government on the self-financing colleges issue.
In a statement here on Saturday, KCBC deputy secretary Fr. Stephen Alathara said the Christians in the State were trying to protect the educational rights of minorities against the consistent and planned infringement of the rights by the Government. In this background, the council felt that it was appropriate that it hold talks with the Government. However, the talks would be meaningful only when it was held within the framework of the democratic norms and the Constitution. Though many rounds of discussions were held after the LDF Government came to power, the Government stand had been to deny the minority rights.
Joint circular
The council brought out a joint circular on the stand of Christians on the minority rights. The council instructed its parishes to read out the circular on any convenient Sunday. The council would go ahead with its protest programmes against the denial of rights. It also decided to constitute local Jagratha Vedis to intervene in cases where violations of minority rights wer e found. The council observed that the Government was trying to propagate ‘dialectical materialism’ through teachers’ training programmes.
The programmes for spreading a certain ideology could be seen in all the fields. The move to involve the panchayat and municipal councils in the administration of aided and unaided schools would not be allowed.
The council accused the Government of adopting a policy which would not serve the interest of poor students. The Government had not as yet implemented a scheme for providing free education to the poor students. However, the Christian managements had a scheme for providing scholarships for them. The statement said that though the managements had won the cases filed against the Government, the Government was not prepared to honour the judgments. The council would also hold talks with other community organisations which were working in the field of education and would seek their cooperation.
