UDF walkout over admissions

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Members of the Opposition United Democratic Front (UDF) staged a walkout from the Assembly on Thursday alleging complicity between the government and the private self-financing medical college managements resulting in a serious muddle in admission for medicine and other allied courses and heavy financial loss to students.

The Opposition alleged that the agreement between the government and the managements was coming in the way of students getting admissions and forcing them to cough up huge sums if they moved from one college to another on getting higher options. The confusion over admissions was also forcing students to migrate to Karnataka and other neighbouring States to pursue their higher studies, the Opposition members said.

Presenting the governments case on behalf of Education Minister M.A. Baby, who is away in New Delhi attending the Central committee meeting of the CPI(M), Parliamentary Affairs Minister M. Vijayakumar said the government was aware of the gravity of the situation which had arisen on account of the Medical Council of India (MCI) derecognising some of the private self-financing medical colleges in the State. The recognition had been restored to some of them, but a few others were yet to get back their recognition. Since there was time till September 30 to complete the admissions, it should be possible to resolve the situation to the satisfaction of everyone within that time-frame, he said.