Protests across Karnataka against CET

North Karnataka saw a spate of protests against the implementation of CET Act, 2006, on Friday.

Teachers’ forum of North-Eastern range in Gulbarga alleged that the Act is not in the interests of poor and middle-class students. Forum’s leader MB Ambalgi said it directly affects the students of Hyderabad-Karnataka region, where 80% colleges are unaided. He said a separate, divisional-level CET is needed for H-K region.

Gulbarga branch of Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishat (ABVP) alleged that the government is acting on the behest of private colleges. City secretary Arun Patil said that only 5,000 medical seats will be available for CET and 75,000 will be under Comed-K.

CPI Bellary district secretary K Nagabhushanrao termed the act as an attempt to commercialise higher education. “It will open gateway for misdeeds in Comed-K test,” he alleged.

Hyderabad-Karnataka Horata Samiti president Raghavendra Kushtagi said that the act, if passed, might haunt students and parents. AIDSO in Bellary warned that it would intensify the agitation by closing PU colleges if government tries to implement the same one or another way.

AIDSO in Davangere staged dharna at Gandhi circle. Rallies and protest meetings were rampant in cities like Bijapur, Bidar, Raichur, Yadgir, Koppal, Gadag, Hubli-Dharwad, Haveri in Northern Karnataka.