Kerala: Self-financing colleges protest arrest, shut today

Kochi: In protest against the arrest of the chairman of Nehru Group of Institutions P. Krishnadas and imposing non-bailable conditions leading to his detention, self-financing institutions across the state have decided to remain closed on Wednesday. The decision was taken at a meeting of the members of the Kerala Private College Management Consortium. In a statement, the consortium president Mr GPC Nayar and working president Mr Jory Mathai said that members were in no doubt about the involvement of higher-ups in the police action. They also said that the consortium had 1189 member colleges in the engineering, medical, management, science and technology, arts and science and other sectors.

They pointed out that the Nehru group was functioning without a blemish and had maintained high standards for the past 16 years. At a time when cases were pending in court, the arrest was made over the suicide of a student as an “act of vendetta”. “Such acts will hamper the smooth functioning of SF institutions and hence as a protest, we have decided to remain closed for a day,” they said. If such acts continued, the government would have to see indefinite closure of educational institutions, they warned.