THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Noisy scenes in the Assembly over the self-financing medical college fees continued for the sixth consecutive day on Monday and the Opposition even boycotted the House after talks with the government failed. Even as Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan accepted the Opposition’s demand for a Crime Branch probe into the alleged acceptance of capitation fees by colleges, he rejected their clamour for reducing the fees at Pariyaram medical college. As the day’s proceedings began with question hour, Opposition Leader Ramesh Chennithala demanded that the House discuss the self-financing issue by suspending all proceedings as two MLAs were on a hunger strike.
However, Speaker P. Sreeramakrishnan tried to pacify the Opposition maintaining that he would intervene to hold discussions later. But the Opposition MLAs trooped to the well of the House shouting slogans. Hence, the speaker suspended the House. Subsequently, he invited the chief minister, opposition leader, former chief ministers Oommen Chandy and V. S. Achuthanandan and other parliamentary party leaders for talks. But the discussions remained inconclusive as the Opposition insisted on reducing the fees of the merit seats at Pariyaram medical college. The government was not ready for a compromise.
As the House resumed later, the Opposition Leader said that since their demands were not accepted by the government, they would boycott the House as they did not want to disrupt its smooth conduct. The chief minister said that the government would soon take steps to take over the Pariyaram medical college and that, thereafter, the fees would come down. Though the Opposition expressed concerns that it won’t be possible later to reduce the fees of those who take admission this year, the government promised to sort out those issues too. The suggestion of Mr. Chennithala for a Crime Branch probe rather than a Vigilance probe into the collection of capitation fees by colleges was also accepted by the government, said Mr. Vijayan.
