THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There seemed to be no end in sight to the 25-day old strike at
Kerala Law Academy
as the latest round of talks convened by education minister
C Raveendranath
on Saturday failed. Worse, the stage seems set for a showdown between rival students' unions with
SFI
agreeing for the college's reopening on Monday.
Student union representatives, except from SFI, who attended the talks convened by the minister at his official chamber demanded the resignation of the college's principal Lekshmi Nair and the government's assurance that she wouldn't occupy that seat again.
The minister who heard the views of management representatives as well as of student leaders asked the students to be satisfied with the management promise to remove Lekshmi Nair from the principal's post for five years. He also advised the academy's founder-director N
Narayanan Nair to take steps for the appointment of a qualified hand as the new principal."This is a private college and government has limitations in intervening in their internal matters. When the management says they are willing to remove
Lekhshmi Nair
for five years and agrees to appoint a new principal, it means that the controversial person will be out of the college for five years'', the minister said.
He added that actions by Kerala University on the syndicate subcommittee report would continue and cases registered following student complaints would also take its own course.
The SFI leadership agreed with the management proposal to reopen the college on Monday. However, other student unions accused the minister of siding with the management and alleged that the minister walked out of the talks.
Congress leader K Muraleedharan, MLA, and BJP leader
V V Rajesh
will continue their fast in front of the academy.
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