Tech colleges violate Constitutional norms

Hyderabad: Private engineering colleges in Telangana State and Andhra Pradesh will now face the music for violating Article 371D of the Constitution. Colleges have been admitting hordes of students from other states under the management quota, even though the Constitution mandates that educational opportunities in TS and AP should be reserved for locals. Although exact numbers are yet to be ascertained, officials recently found several fake Class XII Board certificates and even students from other states.

The AP State Council of Higher Education is in the process of ratifying the management quota admissions held last year. It has already been reported in these columns that officials found many fake Class XII certificates based on which students were admitted by engineering colleges under the management quota.

Investigation is underway, but the officials have already found several hundreds of students “imported” from states like Manipur and Bihar, where the incumbent governments offer backward class students admitted under the management quota fee reimbursement.

“The governments in these states offer tuition and hostel fees reimbursement to their students, wherever they study. So representatives of colleges in the state are going there and conducting unofficial counselling sessions to fill management quota seats,” an APSCHE official said. Officials also point out that this is not just simple corruption, but a gross violation of the Article 371D of the Constitution which mandates that 85 per cent of the seats in Telangana and the two regions of Andhra Pradesh be reserved exclusively for locals.

“By filling majority of the 30 per cent management quota with students from other states, colleges are violating the provisions of the Constitution,” officials said. The AP High Court had earlier ruled that students from other states can be admitted if there are vacant seats left at the end of all counselling process and when there are no more local students who can be admitted. “They are using this judgement wrongly by claiming they fill only leftover seats,” an APSCHE official said.