Bill on medical college admission: BJP meets Governor

A BJP delegation today submitted a memorandum to the Governor P Sathasivam urging him not to give assent to a bill to regularise admissions made in two medical colleges during 2016-17.

The ruling CPI-M led LDF government passed the bill in the assembly with the support of the Congress headed UDF opposition.

BJP MLA O Rajagopal, who headed the delegation, told reporters that they submitted a memorandum to the Governor urging him not to give assent to the bill as it was "aimed to help" the private managements that admitted students by "accepting bribe".

"We have sympathy towards the students whose admission would be affected", he said.

However, it was not possible to support this kind of irregular proceedings, he said.

The House had on April four passed the Kerala professional Colleges (Regularisation of Admission in Medical Colleges) Bill-2018 for regularising admission of students of the private Karuna Medical College, Palakkad and Kannur Medical College.

Congress Working Committee member and former Union Minister A K Antony had criticised the government and the Opposition for passing the bill.

He had stated thatalternative steps should have been taken to help the affected students and their parents.

The issue of the two medical colleges came into focus recently after the Supreme Court stayed Kerala Professional Colleges (Regularisation of Admission in Medical Colleges) ordinance 2017, promulgated by the government.

The bill to regularise the admission of 150 students of the Kannur Medical College and 30 students of Karuna Medical College was passed to replace the ordinance.

Holding that these two colleges had violated the norms, the Admission Supervisory Committee had cancelled their admissions.