25 students referred by CAC denied B Ed admission

UDUPI: Twenty-five students selected and admitted by the Centralised Admission Cell (CAC) for B Ed course have been rejected admission by T M A Pai College of Education. These poor but brilliant students have been spending time in Udupi for a month, visiting the office of the public instruction, office of the deputy commissioner and the college principal pleading for justice.

CAC as per the 75:25 pattern had referred 75 students to TMA Pai College of Education, Udupi. But the college claiming to be a Konkani-speaking minority institution admitted only 50 students based on the 50:50 pattern on the first-come first-serve basis.

Earlier, secretary of the department higher education in a letter dated December 30, 2005, written to the secretary of Dr T M A Pai Foundation, the governing body of TMA Pai College of Education, had stated that the Trust had not attached any affidavit in support of its claim of being a Konkani-speaking minority, submitted to the deputy director of public instructions, Mangalore.

Moreover, there are no supplementary documents to prove that all members of the trust are Konkani-speaking minorities or there is no evidence to prove that two-thirds of its members are Konkani-speaking.

There is not even a declaration made before the district magistrate to this effect.

“Keeping this in mind, though Dr TMA Pai Foundation Trust is a registered body, it has not fulfilled the guidelines to claim the benefits of a minority institution. Hence we rule out its claim of minority institution ship,” the letter said.

As the college, replacing these 25 CAC-referred students, has already admitted 25 other students from the management quota, the prospects of these budding teachers is hanging in balance.

The aggrieved students hail from Coorg, Bagalkot, Bhatkal, Bellary, North Canara, Shimoga, Belgaum and other places. It is strange that the college administration, which denied admission, has been allowing the students to the classes.

But, unlike the students already admitted, the 25 are denied of library facility, assignments, hostel facility, canteen facility etc.

In its interim verdict on January 19, the Karnataka High Court had directed T M A Pai College of Education to allow all the 75 candidates selected and admitted by the CAC, the petitioner, and allotted to the college, to the first year.

B Ed course for the academic session 2005-06, to attend classes. Now the principal claims to have approached the court with a writ petition questioning the decision of the government.