Thiruvananthapuram: Education minister Prof C Raveendranath said that the State Government was open to meet Human Resources Development minister Prakash Javadekar to seek a one-time exemption for chemical engineering students of Toms Engineering College so that they could be absorbed in any of the government engineering colleges in the state.
The proposal to shift the chemical engineering students to a government college was mooted by BJP member O Rajagopal during an adjournment motion moved by Congress leader Roji M John in the Assembly on Wednesday. Satisfied with the response, the opposition did not stage a walk out.
“It is true that only merit students are admitted in government colleges but this being an extraordinary situation, we can seek an exemption from the centre,” Mr Rajagopal said. Mr Raveendranath agreed and said that students studying in all engineering disciplines in Toms Engineering College, except chemical, had accepted the option to shift to other colleges and had moved out. “The chemical engineering students, too, will be given the option once the AICTE (All India Council for Technical Education) allots more seats to Amal Jothi College of Engineering (Kanjirapally),” the minister said.
The chemical engineering students could not be offered such an option because, besides Toms College, there were only two self-financing colleges in the state that taught chemical engineering. “And in both the colleges, there are no vacant seats,” the minister said. He said that a high-level AICTE team had visited the state on March 13 to assess the situation and submit a report to the AICTE. “I am not yet privy to the report but we hope they will grant more seats to Amala College so that the chemical engineering students in Toms College too, like the others, will have the option to move out,” Mr Raveendranath said.
Roji M John had described the inhuman treatment meted out to students by the chairman of Toms College. “Everything is done by the chairman. There is no principal, no heads of departments. The chairman holds all these charges. Strangely, he is also the warden of the women’s hostel,” Mr John said. The minister said the government had asked the AICTE to withdraw affiliation to the college after an enquiry had confirmed all such charges.
