PUDUCHERRY: R Viswanathan, Communist Party of India (CPI) Puducherry unit secretary, on Wednesday criticised the Pondicherry Central University’s exorbitant hike in tuition fees, which was announced a few weeks ago.Addressing a press conference, he said the enhanced fee was many fold when compared to other universities. It was more than the fees of JIPMER, which was also a central institution.He said “barring some reservation in 21 courses out of a total of 53 courses offered, the local students did not have any reservation. He pointed out that the Central University had agreed to allot 25 per cent seats for the local students, when it was set up.The CPI leader said his party would stage a demonstration on Thursday protesting the exorbitant hike in the tuition fees and demanding reservation for the local students for courses.Referring to the suicides by some hostel mates at a private medical institution, Viswanathan suggested that the women officials of the social welfare department and women and child welfare department should monitor the functioning of these hostels and issue guidelines for running the hostel.He said the officials should periodically inspect these hostels and arrange to give counselling for the inmates as they were coming from different cultures.He urged the government to take steps to begin a caste-wise census in the Union Territory, and said a caste-wise list should be released after a social audit.Viswanathan said the police were indulging in repeatedly framing “old and reformed criminals” in cases so as to show results. This trend would end up in making them more hard core criminals and police should not adopt such measures to prove that they are curbing the crimes, he said.The Communist Party of India leader said the Central Government should not show a step-motherly attitude to the state and release more funds and waive the loans to help development of the UT.
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