K'taka govt scraps 50% admission criteria for higher educational institutions to grant minority tag
Bengaluru: In a major decision, the Karnataka government on Friday scrapped the criteria of a minimum number of students required from a minority community to grant the religious minority tag to higher education institutions.
Under the existing rules, institutions offering higher and technical education must admit 50 percent students from the minority religion to qualify for the religious minority institution tag. For example, a Christian minority higher education institution had to have 50 percent Christian students. This requirement has posed challenges, especially for institutions run by smaller communities such as Christians, Jains, Sikhs, and Parsis, which have a limited population base in the state.
The relaxation of the rule would increase the number of non-minority students in the institutions run by minorities.
Briefing on the decisions made at the Cabinet meeting, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister H.K. Patil stated that the decision was in line with Article 30 and the recommendations of the National Minority Commission. The tag would be granted to PU colleges, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate institutions.
Meanwhile, Minority Welfare Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, a prominent Muslim leader from Congress, had earlier expressed surprise at the new rules that apply to institutions run by all minority groups, including Muslims. Muslim-run institutions are reportedly not in favour of the relaxation, as they have sufficient students from their community to meet the requirements. There are concerns that such a relaxation could lead to non-minority students outnumbering the minority students in these institutions.
However, government officials have maintained that the rules cannot be amended selectively to exempt Muslim institutions while relaxing norms for others.
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Three of family drown in river in Kerala
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Kozhikode (PTI): Three members of a family, including a girl, drowned in a river at Nadapuram in this district on Saturday, police said.
The tragic incident occurred when the family had gone to Puliyavu river near Nadapuram, to wash their clothes.
The deceased were identified as Ansar (43), his wife Suhada (39), and Isa Mariyam (8), daughter of Ansar's brother--all residents of Puliyavu here.
According to preliminary information, the child accidentally slipped into deep waters and Ansar and his wife attempted to rescue her.
But all three were also pulled in by the current and drowned.
The couple's children alerted the locals, who initiated rescue efforts.
Though they were pulled out of the water, their lives could not be saved, police said.
The bodies were shifted to the nearby state-run hospital and further procedures are underway, they added.
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