THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: According to former top bureaucrat-turned-Union minister in the first Modi government, K J Alphons aka Alphons Kannanthanam, it was he and P J Joseph, the education minister in the E K Nayanar government in 2000, who surreptitiously facilitated the entry of private professional colleges in Kerala.
In his latest book, ‘The Winning Formula: 52 Ways to Change Your Life’, Alphons reveals that as the then secretary of the higher education department, he went out of the way to issue no-objection certificates (NOCs) to 33 engineering colleges in the private sector and obtained the signature of the minister without knowledge of the cabinet. Later, when Nayanar got to know about it, according to Alphons, it was Joseph’s threat to resign from cabinet if any disciplinary action was taken against the bureaucrat that rescued him.
In the book, Alphons says he had in fact persuaded the then chairman of the All India Council for Technical Education to surpass the LDF government in issuing approvals.
“When I became the higher education department secretary in Kerala in 2000, over 2 lakh Kerala students were doing engineering, medicine, nursing and MBA outside the state, as there were far too few seats here. In 2000, in the state, there were only 300 seats for MBBS, 3,000 seats for engineering, 700 seats for nursing and a few hundred seats for MBA. I told P J Joseph: our children need to study here and for this we must open up.
The minister said: I completely agree with you, but it will never ever be cleared by the LDF’s Liaison Committee; it will never ever go up to the cabinet. I told him impetuously: Sir, don’t our children have the right to study? I have a simple solution: since you cannot approve the idea without the sanction of the cabinet, I as secretary will issue the sanction,” Alphons writes.
Alphons says P J Joseph stood by him
“You don’t have to be part of this decision at all. I will take the responsibility for whatever happens. He said ‘Go ahead’. I was pleasantly shocked and surprised. Mr Joseph was like that,” writes Alphons. As secretary, he issued notices to all the 34 applicants who had applied for NOC from the state government to appear before him and prove their credentials. “I kept the notice a top secret.
“I kept the hearing at Government Guest House, Kovalam. I told the applicants to keep it confidential. It was in their interest to do so. After hearing them I recommended NOC to 33 of them. I took the file to the minister. I told the minister: This is only for NOC. You can sign it. When the issue of final sanction comes up after approval by AICTE , we will think of taking it up with the cabinet. The minister signed. I issued the required NOC, and the applications went to AICTE. This was in November 2000,” he writes.
Three months later Nayanar got to know about the NOC.
“He was furious. He brought the matter to the cabinet the very next day. It was decided to cancel the NOC. The cabinet also wanted I be suspended from service. But P J Joseph stood by me. He said: Alphons has done something absolutely essential for the state. If you touch him, I will resign from the government. His threat worked,” Alphons reveals.
The cabinet directed the chief secretary to go to Delhi with the cabinet decision and meet AICTE chairman Natarajan.
When Alphons got to know about the government move, he preempted the chief secretary and went to Delhi. Alphons met Natarajan and persuaded him to ignore the objection of the government and grant approval. Natarajan gave the approval.
“This is how private engineering colleges were set up in Kerala. 13 colleges were started in 2001, and it went up to 150 in 10 years. The next government of UDF which came to power granted NOC for private medical colleges. Eventually NOC was granted to nursing, MBA and dental colleges in the private sector. In a few years, we had 2,00,000 seats in engineering, medical, dental, MBA and nursing colleges in Kerala.”
In 2006, after quitting the civil service, Alphons contested and won the assembly election as a LDF-backed independent candidate. In 2011, he joined the BJP.