Kochi: Health minister K.K. Shylaja’s attempts to explain away the move to regularise admissions in Kannur and Karuna medical colleges for the academic year 2016-17 under the pretext of saving “innocent students on humanitarian grounds” betray the government’s desperation to camouflage the interventions she and Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan made to protect an erring college management and the students who got admission through the backdoor.
Records in possession of DC show that the Competent Authority, appointed as per the terms of the Kerala Professional Colleges (Regulation and Admission in Medical Colleges) Ordinance, 2017 to consider the applications, had recommended for regularisation the names of students who had lost their opportunity for no fault of theirs. The list had 44 students of Kannur Medical College and 25 students of Karuna Medical College, Palakkad, after the Authority found that they would have got admission had the college managements presented their documents before the Admission Supervisory Committee before November 7, 2016.
It did so by recreating a scenario of processing of applications with the help of the commissioner of entrance examinations and the director of medical education after collecting documents from the Admission Supervisory Committee. The authority relied on a provision in the ordinance which mandated it to process the applications ‘as per the laws and orders in force applicable for the academic year 2016-17’ to prepare the list and making the recommendations.
Accepting that list and the recommendations would have logically resulted in three follow up actions: one, rejection of the applications of students who would have failed to find a place in the list even if the managements had acted lawfully, two: taking action against the managements which played with the future of students who had merit and who had acted as per the directions of the ASC and three, initiating action against the management for collection of capitation fee.
The health minister, instead of proceeding on the basis of the recommendation of the Competent Authority which was endorsed by the additional chief secretary (health), sought the opinion of the law secretary. And the Chief Minister found every piece of advice by the law secretary who castigated the Competent Authority worthwhile, betraying his interests in the affair. In the end, the government cleared the list with 118 students of Kannur Medical College and 31 of Karuna Medical College, helping 80 more students whom the commissioner of entrance examinations and the Competent Authority did not find eligible.
“This is the same trick the college management played,” the parent of a student who lost a year in the melee told DC. “The college management made the meritorious students victims to protect others. Now, the government is presenting them before the public while their real interest is to protect the management and the undeserving students.” The innocent students are made to suffer for others.”
