Engineering Students Dropouts

As many as 7,868 engineering students dropped out of the BTech course from various engineering colleges in the state during the past five years. Of these, 3,474 students dropped out in 2016-17 alone, higher education minister K T Jaleel told the assembly on Monday.

Students having weak understanding about basic engineering subjects, spike in the number of engineering colleges and dearth of qualified and experience teaching faculty are the major reasons that contributed to such a crisis, he said

Transport minister A K Saseendran informed the assembly that electric buses run by KSRTC were incurring losses. The corporation runs 10 electric buses that were procured on lease. The minister also said that 196 low-floor buses of KSRTC were under maintenance. Attappadi tribal settlement witnessed 34 infant deaths during the current government. None of the deaths were due to malnutrition, he said. Chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan informed the house about the plans for setting up special courts for dealing with Pocso cases. Water resources minister K Krishnan Kutty said the government has plans to ensure piped water to all rural households by 2024. This would be made possible with the help of Central government-sponsored Jaljeevan Mission programme. The government would be organizing a Water Congress as part of formulating a comprehensive water policy, he added. Kerala Bank to get final RBI nod soon: Kadakampally The proposed Kerala Bank is expected to get the final nod from Reserve Bank of India by June-end, and will become a reality this financial year, said minister for cooperation Kadakampally Surendran. Concluding the discussion in the assembly on demands for grants in cooperation sector on Monday, the minister said efforts were also on to take Malappuram district cooperative bank (the only one among 14 where the Kerala Bank proposal failed to get a majority vote) into the fold. “Discussions are on with opposition parties, and the government is getting positive feedbacks,” he said. Once formed, the Kerala Bank will be the second largest bank in the state after State Bank of India, the minister said. “The SBI has 1,230 branches in the state, while the Kerala Bank will have 825 branches initially. Against the current deposit of Rs 1.5 lakh crore in SBI, the Kerala Bank will have an initial deposit of Rs 60,000 crore, excluding the deposits in various urban banks,” Surendran said.