3,500 line up outside Andheri colleges planning to shut down...

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Mumbai: The Laxmi Education Trust may not be interested in running two of their junior colleges—MVLU and Chinai College—in Andheri, but almost 3,500 students are interested in seeking admissions here.

The college refused to print admission forms this year. As a result, around 3,500 students who approached the college for admission forms were turned away. The MVLU and Chinai College Bachao Samiti, which consists of teachers, students and activists, has now collected letters from all the 3,500 students who were turned away by the management. These letters have been submitted to the deputy director’s office, said member of the Samiti R S Pande in a press conference on Tuesday.

“The chief minister has ordered the deputy director’s office to register an FIR against the trustee of Laxmi Education Society for not printing admission forms and turning away students,’’ Pande said. Based on the orders of the chief minister, the deputy director has appointed a twomember committee to look into the matter.

On Monday, the Bombay high court set aside the order passed by the school tribunal that had allowed the colleges’ management to shut down the institutions. Over the last few years, this trust has been downsizing its staff and declaring its teachers as surplus. It did this after cutting student intake year-on-year. Sources have said that the trust is planning to build a mall on the land which the colleges currently occupy.

While the school tribunal had earlier declared that the management was allowed to close down the college, Monday’s order set aside this decision. The question of closure will now be decided by the state government in four weeks. The committee set up by the deputy director’s office will take a final decision on this issue.