APSCHE rules put MBA, MCA counselling in a fix

ANANTAPUR: Certain rules of the AP state council of higher education commission (APSCHE) vis-a-vis local status of students to pursue higher education are a hindrance even to genuine applicants. Unscientific ‘local’ and ‘non-local’ issue crops up.

The ongoing spot counselling process for MBA and MCA through ICET entrance brought the issue to the fore.

CK Ganesh, who studied from 1st standard to Intermediate at Madakasira of Satya Sai district has recently completed BBA at a private college in Bangalore. He appeared for ICET entrance test and got the 1450-th rank at the state level. The boy couldn’t get admission during the first two phases of counselling, as his BBA college had not issued the original certificates in time.

After collecting his originals from the Bangalore institute, he appeared for spot counselling before the JNTUA Anantapur on Oct 7.

There were nearly 7 seats in MBA and MCA. Two of them are for the specialised fiancé wing and one was allotted for OCs.

With a good rank, he hoped to get a seat, but the authorities refused him admission by citing the reason that he was non-local and did not belong to the SVU region of Rayalaseema. Another student at 20,000 rank was allotted a seat to study in the local region.

A girl was refused admission on similar grounds. She got the rank around 4,000 in ICET though she was a native of Hindupur in Satya Sai district. She studied 12 years locally but had her graduation in another state.

JNTUA conducted spot admissions but follows the guidelines of APSCHE. “We upload the documents and follow the procedures of APSCHE and allott seats based on local and non-local categories in the applications,” JNTUA vice chancellor Sudarshan Rao stated.

The local and non-local categorization is followed on the basis of academics from Intermediate to graduation.

A former senior official from APSCHE admitted that the norm of identifying local status has been confusing. He stressed the need to rectify the errors and do justice for locals based on their seven-year-long study in a particular region.

Not only Ganesh, but several students who pursed graduation in other states are losing seats even as they hold merit ranks. “We are locals of SVU region since many decades, but my son studied a three-year BBA in Bengaluru. How far is it correct treating him non-local vis-a-vis the SV region,” asked Ganesh’s father CS Krishna Murthy.

Murthy urged the council to do justice to the merit students by changing the norms.