Puducherry govt serves show cause notices to 2 private medical colleges

Puducherry: Chief Minister Narayanswamy in response to the walk outs staged by the All India NR Congress and the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (Amma ) informed the house of the government having issued show cause notices to private medical colleges. The show cause notices have been issued to the private colleges for not having adhered to the fee prescribed by the Centralized Admission Committee(CENTAC) during student admissions.

Responding to the Opposition leader N Rangaswamy, Congress member K. Lakshminarayanan and AIADMK leader A. Anbalagan's queries during zero hour Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy said that the colleges had been asked to render a reply by Friday on why the government shouldn't withdraw their Essentiality Certificate/No-Objection Certificate for open flouting of fee rules by them.

The Chief Minister revealed that the government planned to initiate action against colleges that failed to complete the admission process on the last day of counselling.

According to Sources in the Government, 'show cause notices' have been issued to Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Sri Venkateshwaraa Medical College and Hospital. The notices speak of colleges not having admitted students under the management /government quota as promised; and also charging exorbitant fee from selected students, way above that fixed by the committee.

The notices further add that the "wilful failure of the institute to provide seats to the students sponsored by the CENTAC, both under the State/management quota, is a clear violation of the direction of the Government of India and fee committee."

"The conduct and attitude of the institute with a deliberate intention to avoid seat sharing with the government are against public interest and interest of students," read the show cause notices, to the above mentioned colleges.

The notices also reiterate the earlier warning given to the colleges after the first phase of Counselling, in a notice dated May 16, 2017.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister, Mr. Narayanasamy said managements of three colleges — Sri Venkateshwaraa Medical College and Hospital, Sri Manakula Vinayagar Medical College and Hospital and Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) — had met the Health Minister to assure him of the government's intent to admit students. However, the Chief Minister stated that they had information that except for PIMS, none of the other institutions had admitted students. Eight students had been admitted by PIMS till Wednesday evening, the Chief Minister informed. The opposition also got into a heated argument with the Chief Minister, after leveling charges of corruption against it.

Mr. Narayanasamy challenged the Opposition members to prove the charges being leveled by them regarding admissions not having been done in a transparent manner, reports the Hindu.

The Chief Minister promised to table a list of students admitted to the colleges in the house on the directions of the Speaker V. Vaithilingam.