Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihar for caution on options

Hyderabad: Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari requested students to exercise caution before opting for courses in private engineering colleges that are to be re-inspected by the AICTE-JNTU since their final affiliation will depend on the teams’ reports.

Temporary affiliations could become contentious again as students who choose these courses will have to be relocated if these courses don’t get final affiliation, as per the High Court order.

The Telangana government does not have a relocation policy.  Asked about the process, Mr Srihari said he didn’t expect students to join courses with temporary affiliations.

“Students generally will not prefer them so there won’t be any problem of relocation,” he said. “Admissions in such courses in colleges will be subject to final orders of the High Court. If their temporary affiliation is revoked, the colleges will have to refund the students’ fees with interest. So if any student wants to join courses with temporary affiliation, they should keep this in mind,” Mr Srihari cautioned.

However, last year, when the Supreme Court had delivered a similar judgement granting 163 private engineering colleges provisional affiliations, close to 9,000 students had joined them. The government was forced to hold exams for the students.

“Relocation is not a simple thing because you need equivalency in fees, reputation, facilities and so on. What if a student doesn’t like the college he is being relocated to? We are hoping nobody chooses temporarily affiliated courses,” a senior official said.