Chennai: In a major development, all self-financing colleges in Chennai have jointly agreed to surrender 65 percent of their seats to the Government this year.

The colleges have however, simply refused to sign any agreement with the state Government.

Mr. Jeppiar, President of the Consortium of Self-Financing Colleges in Tamil Nadu, told the reporters that this was a legal issue. "The Court has not given any verdict on this case so the parties 'cannot sign anything'."

He further pointed towards the earlier decision by the Madras High court which permitted self financing colleges to retain control of all seats.

The Government, while answering to the allegations of excess fee collection, has announced that students would pay the prescribed fees into accounts opened by self-financing colleges in select nationalized banks only and subsequently, the bank challan should be submitted to the college for the grant of admission order.

However, according to Mr. Jeppiar, poor students would not be able to receive loans to pay their fees without first actually receiving their admission orders. The decision may hamper students' chances of admission to the course of their choice.

"If the government goes through with this plan, 5,000 to 6,000 more seats will remain vacant this year", he further said.