PUDUCHERRY: AIADMK Puducherry unit secretary A Anbazhagan demanded the withdrawal of “400 per cent to 500 per cent increase in tuition and other fees for various courses by the Pondicherry University”.
Addressing a press conference on Wednesday, the party legislator said the inordinate fee hike for PhD, MPhil, MCA, MBA and post graduate courses would adversely affect the prospect of aspiring students from joining a course in the Central varsity. He demanded the immediate withdrawal of the hike and urged the fees to be made the same as last year.
Pointing out that there was no need for the hike as the Central Government provided `239 crore under five-year plan and an additional `100 crore every year, he urged the State government to intervene and press for withdrawal of the hike. He sought the intervention of Union Minister V Narayanasamy in the interest of students.
Saying that other states with Central Universities have pro-chancellors to keep a tab on the universities, the AIADMK leader suggested the State administration set up a committee to monitor the functioning of the Pondicherry University (PU).
He charged that in the absence of a pro-chancellor,the Central University was functioning against the interest of the local student community. Anbazhagan urged the administration to initiate the process of admission through the Centralised Admission Committee (CENTAC) and to avoid delay in the selection of students for professional courses like medicine and engineering.
He reiterated that the government should ensure the 475 seats out of the 950 seats in the private medical colleges in the State be filled by students selected through CENTAC.
About the post-graduate medical courses seats, he said the government should at least get 25 seats out of the total 153 seats of the private medical colleges, though the private managements were expected to surrender 50 per cent seats to the government.
He charged that the government was indulging in “gambling in education” (kalvi chootattam) by not securing the seats surrendered by the private medical colleges, which were allegedly selling them for `90 lakh to `1 crore per seat”.
Anbazhagan reiterated the demand to do away with the regional reservation, which adversely affects students.