Wayanad, Sunday 15 August 2010: Finance Minister T.M. Thomas Isaac has said that the LDF government has decided to provide autonomous status to government engineering colleges in the State.

Isaac said that the autonomous status would improve quality of education, in sync with the times, in the engineering colleges. Dr. Isaac said a common academic council, which would coordinate between institutions in the technical education sector, would also be set up. He added that existing vacancies of lecturers in all colleges would be filled soon.

Isaac said that the government had set up two land tribunals in the district to assess and retrieve illegally possessed land.

Maternity benefits would be provided to all women workers in the unorganised sector in the State from October 2, the Minister said. The government was planning to extend the scheme for supplying rice at Rs.2 a kg to all the workers under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employ Guarantee Act, he said.