TS Inter exams begin today, minister says no college can stop hall tickets

HYDERABAD: Even as Intermediate public examinations are all set to commence on Tuesday, several corporate colleges have not issued hall tickets to their students for not paying the fee, despite clear orders from the Intermediate board against the practice.

The board had issued a notice saying that students could directly download their hall tickets from the website of the Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE) and there was no need for the signature of their principal. However, students are not aware of the guideline.

“SR College (earlier known as Gayatri College), Narayana, Chaitanya, Alphores Junior College and several other such commercial-minded corporate colleges trouble their students by withholding their hall tickets till the eleventh hour for not paying the complete fee,” said Dr P. Madhusudhan Reddy, president of the Telangana Government Junior Colleges Lecturers’ Association.

He added that on March 13, he went to pay the pending fee of ₹ 1,000 of a relative at a private college who did not issue the hall ticket to the student. “The student’s parents are economically poor and requested the college to allow them to pay the fee later but to no avail,” he said.

Meanwhile, even students from government and private junior colleges said that they were oblivious of any such notice about downloading of hall tickets.

A student from St. Mary's junior college said that a fine of ₹ 5,000 was collected from his friend as he had 60 per cent attendance. Only after he paid the amount was he given the hall ticket.

Lecturers Forum convener Syed Zabee said that there are many students from private colleges whose hall ticket has not been issued for not paying the fee.

“The government has made it clear that with regard to shortage of attendance, a college can collect a maximum of ₹ 500 and not ₹ 5,000. The colleges threaten parents, who end up paying exorbitant amounts,” he said.

TSBIE had on March 6 said that all hall tickets have been uploaded on tsbie.cgg.gov.in and college principals can download them using their respective college logins and distribute them to their students immediately.

Chief superintendents of theory examination centres were also instructed to allow candidates with downloaded hall tickets.

Meanwhile, despite several attempts to contact him for clarification on the issue, the commissioner of collegiate and technical education Navin Mittal was unavailable.