the goan I network
PANAJI
Former Union law minister Ramakant Khalap on Monday said he has decided to move the Bombay High Court against the government for refusing to approve grant-in-aid for the Mandrem College of Commerce and Economics.
Khalap said he would move a fresh petition as well as initiate contempt proceedings against the government within the next one week for disregarding a High Court direction to grant the college the permissions.
He said, the issue will also be raised in the “people’s court” and expressed confidence that in Mandrem by-election as well as the upcoming Lok Sabha polls the issue will reverberate and law-abiding people of Goa will punish the BJP for unlawfully discriminating against the college.
Khalap, who is chairman of the Mandrem Vikas Parishad which manages the college claimed that it was approved in 2012 on a Grant-in-aid basis but later in July 2013, the then Manohar Parrikar-led government withdrew it on the false ground that the Government College at Virnoda (Pernem) is at a distance of less than seven kilometres from Mandrem.
Actually, the Mandrem College of Commerce and Economics is 23 kilometres away Khalap said, adding that Parrikar had himself admitted the mistake when he had called on him.
Meanwhile, the Bombay High Court had earlier quashed the Goa University order withdrawing the affiliation of the college to the University after the management had filed a writ petition.
Since 2012, five batches of students of the Mandrem College have been conferred the BCom degree by the Goa University.
There is no law or regulation in existence providing for distance as a criteria for approval of colleges, Khalap said and cited the examples of Ganapat Parsekar College of Education at Harmal, Vidhya Prabodhini College at Porvorim, Swami Vivekanand College at Borim and Gaonkar College at Dharbandora which were all given permission to despite being within seven kilometres of already existing institutions.
Khalap also claimed that his college was providing education to girl students, minorities, scheduled castes and students from economically weaker sections in the surrounding villages.
