Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari, who holds Education portfolio, today stated that the State government will take stringent measures against corporate and private colleges for violating norms.
During question hour in the Council today, several members, while expressing concern sought steps against the recurrence of the incidents of suicides and harassment to the students and parents in corporate and private colleges. On this, the minister said the government was aware of such unsavory incidents bringing bad name to the government and causing much problem to the parents. “We have served show-cause notices to as many as 194 colleges and warned them to mend their ways and create conducive atmosphere on the campuses with all facilities, counseling and complaint register”, he said.
The Education Minister also said the State government strictly warned that criminal cases will be filed besides cancelling their recognition for not following the stipulated norms. Teams of officials are conducting frequent raids on the corporate and private colleges and found that the managements were harassing the students by holding classes from 6 am to 10 pm without any gap during holidays, lack of facilities in the hostels and a lot of pressure leading to the incidents of suicides.
The government was in favour of the students, who should not suffer a year loss due to cancellation of registration of these colleges, he said. Next year, the government will implement a policy to give affiliation and guidelines to the colleges as per calendar next academic year. Intermediate, Degree and Engineering colleges if failed to follow the guidelines will face serious action, he warned.
Stating that the colleges which got permission will be known to the people through newspapers, he said affiliation of the colleges will be completed by March 31 in 2018. The managements should take prior permission for hostels also when they obtain for colleges and the officials were directed to cancel the recognition of the colleges for not following guidelines. The government will hold meetings and counseling involving college managements and parents to prevent suicides by the students, he added. (NSS)