They don't talk anymore: Patel cuts permission, Calicut University freezes academic services to Lakshadweep centres

A week ago, the Lakshadweep administration, helmed by Administrator Praful Patel, had revoked the permission given to Calicut University (CU) to run its centres that offer graduate and post-graduate programmes on the island. Now, in retort, the university has decided to freeze all the academic services offered to these centres. This was decided in a syndicate meeting presided by the varsity's Vice-Chancellor.
 

"The Lakshadweep administration, in a letter, had informed us that it won't renew its contract with the university and that it won't fund the three centres on the island," the university said in a statement. "Hence, we are freezing the services until we hear back next from the administration," it says. This essentially mean that no academic activities will happen in these centres until the administration gets back to the university. 

The CU centres have been functioning in Lakshadweep for the past 17 years. According to a New Indian Express report from last week, the administration will let the students in Lakshadweep enrol in centres run by Pondicherry University from 2021. The Department of Education in Lakshadweep has informed CU authorities that students who are currently pursuing their UG and PG programmes at CU centres  that this option is open to them, should they choose to switch.

A few months ago, the administration had asked CU to scrap its master's courses and BA Arabic and BA Political Science courses and this had caused a lot of hue and cry. This move was taken, according to the administration, owing to low enrollment in these courses.