Kochi: Even as the opposition United Democratic Front is protesting the deal between the Left Democratic Front (LDF) government and private medical college managements, chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan has poured more scorn on the Opposition.
The chief minister’s remarks come even as the Youth Congress is holding a series of protests against the deal between the government and private college managements, and three MLAs began a fast to protest the deal.
“The government has put an end to the various options for managements to claim capitation fees. Seats have increased and merit-based admission has been ensured. Some are upset by this change. The strike by the Youth Congress is on behalf of those who have lost out by the absence of any scope for corruption”, Vijayan said.
Following uproarious scenes in the state assembly over the past few days with regard to the private medical colleges, three Opposition MLAs on Wednesday began a fast in front of the state assembly.
The three MLAs — Congressmen Shafi Parambil and Hibi Eden, and Kerala Congress (Jacob) group leader Anoop Jacob — are holding the fast to highlight the steep rise in fees in private medical colleges following the deal between the LDF government and private medical college managements.
Expressing solidarity with the three MLAs, two other MLAs from the Indian Union Muslim League — K.M. Shaji and N. Shamsudeen — have also begun a sit-in strike.
Thiruvananthapuram district witnessed a strike on Wednesday following Chief Minister Vijayan’s remarks in the state assembly on Tuesday. Minor scuffles were reported from Nedumangad and Neyyattinkara in the district.
On Tuesday, Opposition benches made a din in the House after the chief minister condemned a strike by the Youth Congress workers, alleging that the crowd was hired by television channels. He repeated the allegation later in the day, outside the assembly.
The Kerala Union of Working Journalists also criticised the chief minister’s statement, stating that media persons were not the hired property of anyone. The union demanded that the chief minister withdraw his statement.
