Thiruvananthapuram, May 18 (IANS): The Congress on Wednesday slammed the Kerala government for 'ruining' the higher education sector in the state, claiming that numerous posts of vice-chancellors and principals are lying vacant.

Leader of Opposition V.D. Satheesan claimed that the main reason why the state government has left the top posts in the education sector vacant is to ensure that only people from its own camp get appointed to those posts.

"Around 40,000 students have left Kerala for higher education purposes," said Satheesan.

He claimed that there are eight acting VCs in the state and in 66 government colleges, there are no principals.

"The situation is such that very soon, the 14 universities in the state will have only in-charge VCs. Another reality is that though a list of 43 qualified principals is lying with the office of Higher Education Minister R. Bindhu for the past 10 months, no decision has been taken so far as the CPI-M is waiting to get its own people appointed to these posts," Satheesan said.