TRIVANDRUM, 28 June — The government of the southern Indian state of Kerala yesterday decided to revoke its earlier decision to withdraw permission by the previous government to the colleges in the state to start 191 new courses in various disciplines.
“The state Cabinet decided to give permission for new courses on the condition that it would not put additional financial burden on the exchequer,” Chief Minister A.K. Antony told reporters after the meeting here. No new posts would be created in the colleges for the conduct of the courses.
The chief minister said the services of existing teaching staffs or those who were rendered excess after the pre-degree courses were de-linked from the colleges, could be used for the new courses. This would be applicable to the 11 training colleges, 10 in aided colleges and one in unaided colleges.
The concerned universities have been directed to cancel the approval of new courses if the management of the colleges does not follow the conditions.
The previous Left Democratic Front (LDF) government had sanctioned the courses for the new academic year. But the new government decided not shelve the decision saying that the cash-strapped government was unable to provide any budgetary support. The decision has been revoked following widespread protests.
With the fresh recruitment ban, the revocation of the decision is unlikely to do any good as most of the courses were planned with emphasize on information technology and biotechnology, which needs fresh recruitment of teachers.
But the unaided colleges could go ahead with the plans to offer courses with IT and biotechnology orientation as they do not depend the state funding. The Cabinet also formed a five-member subcommittee to study the intricacies and legal dimensions of reverting the Pariyaram Medical College to the cooperative sector.
