The higher education department’s joy over his intervention to bring to an end the impasse over the seat matrix and fee structure for engineering undergraduate courses appears to be short-lived.
The higher education department’s joy over chief minister BS Yeddyurappa’s intervention to bring to an end the impasse over the seat matrix and fee structure for engineering undergraduate courses for the coming academic year appears to be short-lived.
Unequivocally rejecting the chief minister’s formula over fee structure and fee matrix solution, a section of the Karnataka Unaided Private Engineering Colleges Association (KUPECA) has said that it is not a party to the resolution package that was forged on Thursday and alleged that only managements sympathetic to the ruling BJP were party to it.
RL Jalappa, Congress leader and head of the Devaraj Uras Group of Institutions, who had moved the Karnataka high court seeking a directive to the state government to make the Justice B Padmaraj Committee report on fee fixation public, was the first person to go public with his opposition to the formula.
“I will not accept this and the high court directive will be final for me.
I am expecting the judgment next week,” Jalappa told DNA. Jalappa was among the several college representatives who was not invited to the Thursday meeting where the compromise package was thrashed out.
According to sources, only representatives of colleges owned by BJP MLAs, MPs and MLCs were invited for the meeting. “Jawahar was the only representative of KUPECA at the meeting. Jawahar represents the PES group of institutions which is owned by BJP MLC MR Doreswamy,” a KUPECA member pointed out.
A few professional colleges have also questioned the chief minister’s rationale of convening a meeting when the KUPECA chairman was not in town.
"KUPECA chairman Panduranga Shetty is out of town, but the meeting was conducted in his absence. Only a few members were present. Shetty is the person who has been attending all meetings related to CET so far,” said a head of a prime institutions in the city.
Jalappa is firm in his opposition to the compromise package. He confirmed that he will not withdraw his petition at any cost. “I won’t change my decision even if the chief minister calls me for discussions. Several institutions are with me and their number will only increase after the high court delivers its verdict,” he said.
The Forum of Private Engineering Colleges of Karnataka is also not happy with the chief minister’s solution on the fee structure. Forum chairman BT Lakshman said, “It is impossible to run a college by collecting Rs35,000 fee. We want the fee to be fixed at Rs40,000 with the chief minister’s solution. The solution is binding only on those who attended the meeting.’
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