Special schools in Kerala to get aided status

Kerala government has decided to provide aided status to special schools for differently-abled students run by private institutions.
Talking to reporters after cabinet meeting here, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy said initially the aided status would be given to those schools where there are more than 100 students.
Government has fixed 1:8 as teacher-student ratio in these schools. It has also been decided in principle to extend similar status to those schools which have 50 students in next three months after getting a report on the matter, he said.
There are a total of 278 special schools in the state and out of this 277 are in private sector and while one such school is run by a panchayat.

"These schools should not collect fees from students", he said, adding the government has prescribed guidelines and facilities that are required in these schools.
Chandy said the government would go ahead with land acquisition process for the proposed Light Metro Transport Project at Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.

"Further steps would be taken after getting sanction for the project from Centre," he said.
To a question, he said there was no financial crisis in the state. None of the project or welfare programme of the government were affected due to shortage of funds, he claimed.
Chandy said the government would effectively intervene in open market during the coming Onam festival season to check the rise in price of essential commodities.

He assured that the functioning of Onam Markets opened by Horticulture and Civil Supplies Corporation during the festival period would not be affected due to want of funds.
Finance Minister K M Mani, who was also present at the press meet, said the Finance Department never withheld funds for any departments.
Issues connected with Public Service Commission have been sorted out after discussion with Commission members, he said, referring to the controversy after Finance Department held an inspection on the accounts of state Public Service Commission (PSC), a statutory body under constitution.
However, Mani maintained that the government has the right to conduct inspection of PSC accounts as funds were given by the government.