Admission regularisation: Government to go ahead with controversial Bill

Thiruvananthapuram: Though the Supreme Court has stayed the ordinance issued in connection with the admissions to two medical colleges in the state, the government said it would go ahead with the Kerala Professional College Bill for regularising the admission of 180 students of the 2016-17 batch to the colleges. The Assembly had referred the Bill to the law department and it is likely to be sent to Governor P. Sathasivam for his assent. Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said that the government did not want to pick a fight with the court on the issue.

The government only wanted to support the students, he added. The same view was echoed by Health Minister K.K. Shyalaja. Former KPCC president V.M. Sudheeran has come down heavily on the Opposition for supporting the medical Bill passed by the Assembly. “The Opposition helped the unanimous passage of the Bill that regularises the anomalies committed by Kannur and Karuna medical colleges, which is a grave mistake,” Mr Sudheeran said. “Instead of exposing the move to protect self-financing colleges which want to mint money, the Opposition supported the Bill which is a serious flaw,” he said.

However, former chief minister Oommen Chandy, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala and BJP state president Kummanam Rajasekharan said that they supported the Bill considering the future of the students. “We took the decision on humanitarian grounds,” said Mr Chandy.Mr Chennithala said that it was a joint decision taken by UDF leaders. “We will not turn a blind eye to the managements’ intention to loot money,” said Mr Chennithala. BJP leader V. Muraleedharan said Mr Kummanam supported the Bill without studying it properly.