Mangaluru ; Member of Legislative Council Ivan D’Souza on Monday said his proposal to start evening diploma courses at the existing Karnataka (Government) Polytechnic in Mangaluru is likely to get the government nod soon. Presently, only two institutes offer evening diploma courses in the State, at Bengaluru and Mysuru, he said.

Speaking to reporters here on his performance during the recently concluded legislature session, Mr. D’Souza said since Mangaluru was emerging a major business and industrial hub, evening diploma courses would go a long way in offering technical hands to industries. Since candidates with ITI could directly enter second year diploma, they too would get benefited, he said.

Mr. D’Souza told that Minister for Higher Education R.V. Deshpande was positive to his suggestion to start evening diploma courses in mechanical, electrical, and electronics and communication at Mangaluru. He has also urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to include the proposal in the forthcoming budget.

Meanwhile, he has urged the government to extend the mid-day meal scheme to ITI students too, who number about one lakh in the state, including 47,000 in government ITIs, 15,000 in aided ITIs and 46,000 in unaided ITIs. Majority of students hail from economically weaker sections and the government should consider feeding them, he said.

Mr. D’Souza has also urged the government to review the online admission system to ITIs since students were being allotted seats in institutes in faraway places. Students from Kalaburagi and Bidar get seats in Mangaluru where they cannot sustain their studies due to high cost of living. The government should consider allotting seats in the nearby institutes, he said.

Highlighting another of his initiatives, Mr. D’Souza said the government amended the rules to recruit lecturers to degree colleges after he raised the eligibility criteria issue in the Legislative Council. As per the original rules, those who had studied M.Com after passing BBM were not eligible to teach commerce students. After the issue was raised in the House, the government amended the rule allowing BBM, M.Com students to apply for lecturer (Commerce) post.

During the nine-day session, Mr. D’Souza was able to raise 45 questions, at the rate of five questions per day and got answers to 41 of them. He also got Rs. 64 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Relief Fund towards treatment of ailing people in the district, Mr D’Souza said.