Erring tech colleges pulled up

Hyderabad: Authorities are cracking the whip on erring engineering colleges. Managements of about 16 engineering colleges on outskirts of Hyderabad and some other districts were raided by the police on Thursday for allegedly resorting to fraudulent methods to garner affiliation. These colleges are among the 174 colleges that were denied affiliation by JNTU prior to last year’s Eamcet counselling.

Following Supreme Court directions, inspection teams, with experts from BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad, IIT-Hyderabad, Osmania University and other institutions, checked engineering colleges for compliance with norms. It was reported  in these columns that the teams had found discrepancies in the faculty.

JNTU registrar Prof. N.V. Ramana Rao filed a police complaint on Wednesday. Based on this, police conducted raids on Thursday. “The standing committee on affiliation found that the same faculty is employed in more than one institution. This manipulation was done deliberately with an intention to secure compliance of AICTE norms and get affiliation for the purpose of claiming fee reimbursement,” Prof Rao said in his complaint. He named Krishna Murthy Institute of Technology  and Engineering, Princeton Institute of Engineering and Technology for Women, Siddhartha Institute of Technology and Sciences as some of the erring colleges. JNTU officials also named a middleman, one Naveen, who supplied staff to colleges for putting them up during inspections.

The inspection report was finalised this week by JNTU. Vice-Chancellor Shailaja Ramaiyer is learnt to have submitted it to the government. However, engineering colleges say the government is threatening them. “The government owes money for fee reimbursement. If we ask them for it, they use these tactics and frame us so we will keep quiet,” the owner of an engineering college said.