The near absolute majority won by the Congress party in the Karnataka state legislative election of May 5 has been cautiously welcomed by the state’s citizens thoroughly disillusioned with its predecessor scams-tainted BJP government which (mis)ruled the state for five years (2009-2013). K. Siddaramaiah, a political veteran known for his ‘clean image’, was sworn in as chief minister amid great expectations at a ceremony attended by over 50,000 people in Bangalore on May 13. One of the first challenges before the chief minister was to renew or repudiate a consensual seat-sharing agreement signed annually between the state government and Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges-Karnataka (COMED-K), which represents the state’s 187 private unaided professional education (engineering, medical etc) colleges. Every year, private professional colleges and the state government wrangle over the quota of seats in private colleges to be allotted to students topping the state government’s common entrance test (CET) and special subsidised tuition fees payable by them. At a meeting held on May 24 between COMED-K representatives and the new Congress government, the latter won a minor victory by browbeating private college managements to retain last year’s tuition fees structure and seat sharing matrix. As per the agreement, in the new academic year commencing in August, 45 percent of the intake capacity of engineering, 40 percent of medical and 25 percent of dental in the state’s 187 private professional education colleges will be allotted to CET 2013 exam toppers at government prescribed annual fees — engineering (Rs.35,000); medical (Rs.46,000) and dental (Rs.35,000). Against this, other students will pay tuition fees ranging from Rs.1.25-3.52 lakh per year. Comed-K, which has been demanding a 30 percent hike in the tuition fees paid by government quota students, opted to agree when it was threatened with implementation of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission and Determination of Fee) Act, 2006 (KPEI), which mandates reservation of 50 percent of capacity in private professional colleges for SCs, STs and OBCs, and determination of tuition fees by a committee headed by a retired high court judge. “We are giving an option to private colleges to either follow the consensual agreement or agree to implementation of the Karnataka Professional Educational Institutions Act, 2006,” chief minister K. Siddaramaiah told the media on May 22. Confronted with the implementation of the cold-storaged 2006 legislation, private professional college managements opted for the lesser evil of the consensual agreement, in consideration of which the state government called off implementation of the Act for another year. Unsurprisingly, there’s considerable heartburn within private professional colleges that despite three Supreme Court judgements (T.M.A. Pai Foundation (2002), Islamic Academy (2003) and P.A. Inamdar vs. State of Maharashtra (2005)) upholding the right of private self-financed professional colleges to determine their own “reasonable’’ tuition fees and transparent admission processes, the state government continues to arm-twist them to allocate upto 45 percent of capacity to “merit’’ students topping CET, at subsidised fees. Comments Dr. S. Kumar, secretary of COMED-K: “Successive court judgements have given private professional colleges the…
