Hyderabad: Fresh inspections have been initiated by the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University and committees for renewing the affiliations of constituent colleges.
Admissions to the colleges through counselling can be made only after the list of affiliated colleges is given to the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education .
Engineering colleges, meanwhile, say that they are confused as to why the inspections have started again and point out that inspections can’t be initiated without clearing the fee reimbursement arrears.
Telangana State education minister, G. Jagadeesh Reddy, had said that the affiliations of the colleges in the state would be renewed only after they were inspected.
Education department officials said that that the government wanted to weed out colleges with minimal infrastructure and this was one of the first revamp measures in technical education.
Telangana State Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, had said that the fee reimbursement scheme was a big sham and many colleges did not have the requisite infrastructure.
However, the inspections will also delay counselling in the state since colleges can’t participate in the counselling process unless their affiliations are renewed by the respective university.
“It will take at least two to three weeks since there are more than 300 colleges in Telangana,” a senior official said.
Meanwhile, this has put the cash-strapped engineering colleges in a quandary. Many have even admitted to not sticking to norms saying that the norms themselves are unrealistic.
Dr Gautam Rao, chairman, Telangana Engineering and Professional College Managements Association, said, “We don’t know why they are carrying out these inspections again.” Re-affiliation is generally done on paper during vacations.
College managements also questioned how inspections could be carried out when the government had not cleared their arrears.
