EARLY TIMES REPORT
Srinagar, Feb 18 : Coaching Centres Association (CCA) of Kashmir has called for a Valley wide shutdown of February 21 against the 'irresponsible' statement made by Education Minister on the floor of the house that there are only two legal coaching centres in Kashmir Valley.
Addressing a press conference in Srinagar on Tuesday, Chairman, CCA, GN Var said that vested interests in Education Department are hell-bent to destroy the private tuition industry in Valley. He said that on Feb 21, all 550 coaching centres providing education to more than 50,000 students would voluntarily shut down to draw government attention towards the critical challenge facing this vital sector.
"By terming all the coaching centres illegal made us believe that it is a deep-rooted conspiracy by some vested interests to destroy the private tuition industry as well as career of lakhs of students. The statement made by Education Minister is misleading. Either the education department has deliberately misled the minister or the government is unaware of the real situation," he said.
Chairman CCA said that despite on short notice, on the directions of DC Srinagar, 140 coaching centres submitted their complete documents. "But the registration never came neither did any answer from the education department," he said adding that CCA wants to ask them 'if they don't give us registration then atleast give us an explanation for the denial.'
He said public has right to know which tow coaching centres are registered but the irony is that education department wants to keep it secret for the reasons better known to the higher ups of the department.
"We fear it being a ploy from some quarters to destroy the genuine private tuition industry of Kashmir and then hand over the same to their blue-eyed persons.
We have every apprehension to believe that they may hijack our industry in the same way they did it with B.Ed. sector. The B.Ed. colleges are fully controlled by Ministers, MLA's, bureaucrats and their relatives."
Var alleged that every attempt was made to stop them from organizing the press conference. "On the directions of some vested influential persons, police approached us and directed us to seek permission from DC Srinagar. Please tell me, do we need anybody's permission to hold a press conference which is our fundamental right," he said demanding a thorough probe into the matter.
Pertinently, the Education Minister on the floor of the House had stated that out of the total 140 coaching centres functioning in twin cities of Srinagar and Jammu, only two operating in Srinagar are registered and all others are illegal. |
