Thiruvananthapuram: The student's wing of the ruling CPI(M) party in Kerala, the Students Federation of India (SFI), organised protests against the state government on Monday over the Class 11 students' seat crisis in the Malabar region. Other students' organisations affiliated with the Indian Union Muslim League (IUML) and the opposition Congress have organised a series of protests already, The News Minute reported.
SFI national committee member E Afsal inaugurated the protest and said that they were protesting because state educational minister V Sivankutty did not fulfil his promise of additional batches if there is the issue of seat crunch after the third allotment. He said that the organisation had asked the minister to address seat shortage in the region since the SSLC results were announced. He reminded that the minister had made the promise but SFI vowed that if the promise was not fulfilled, the organisation would resort to protest marches.
It was a week ago that the student wing of the IUML Muslim Students Federation (MSF) started protests over the crisis. The organisation alleged that the state's LDF government has been neglecting the Malabar region, particularly Malappuram. Congress student wing Kerala Students Union (KSU) also started its own protest, and they joined MSF in waving black flags at Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at Kozhikode on June 22.
On Monday, June 24, minister Sivankutty told the state assembly that there are 17,298 applicants awaiting admission and 9,820 seats are vacant. He said that the said seats would be filled after the supplementary allotment, reducing the seat shortage to 7,478. He added that the issue will be resolved with the cooperation of student organisations and opposition, TNM reported.
The minister told the media that SFI might be protesting over a misunderstanding.
According to a The Hindu report, when 79,730 students are eligible for higher studies in Malappuram, the number of seats available is only 59,690.