Scholarship fund proposed to end SFCs row

KOZHIKODE: K S Radhakrishnan, chairman-designate of the Kerala Public Service Commission (KPSC), has proposed the constitution of a scholarship fund as a solution to the unending controversy over the admission and fee structure of the self-financing colleges (SFC) in the state. He was speaking at the commemoration of Muslim League leaders Panakkad Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal and Syed Ummar Bafaqi Thangal held in Kozhikode on Sunday.“Like the Sabarimala pilgrimage season, every year there comes a ‘self-financing season’ with people shouting against one another. The government should think of adopting a different strategy. A scholarship fund should be constituted to help students belonging to the economically backward families. The government should have to spend only 10 percent of the total amount, which it would have been invested to establish all these educational institutions and the expenses required to maintain them. It’s a simple but effective solution to end the self-financing row,” he said. Radhakrishnan asked Industries Minister P K Kunhalikutty, who inaugurated the function, to take the initiative to implement his proposal. “This proposal was presented before a former minister. But he said such an initiative would kill the ‘fighting spirit’ of students. The government should decide if the students should have ‘learning spirit’ or ‘fighting spirit’,” he said. Remembering noted Muslim League leaders Syed Mohammedali Shihab Thangal and Syed Ummar Bafaqi Thangal, Radhakrishnan said, “both leaders played a pivotal role in maintaining secularism in the state and had shown how to implement the preachings in the Holy Quran effectively in political administration.”Kunhalikutty also remembered the secular approach maintained by both leaders and efforts made by them for the uplift of the community. Social Welfare and Panchayat Minister M K Muneer,IUML state secretary M C Mayin Haji, IUML leader P K K Bava and MLAs Moyinkutty and V M Ummer Master also attended.