Agents jack up seat cost
Parents and students are forced to rely on education consultants for admissions to professional colleges for new academic year 2012-13, since the college managements do not respond when they are directly approached for seats.
Nearly 2,000 consultants in Hyderabad and neighbouring districts are involved full-time in sale of seats in professional colleges. Some colleges have exclusive agents for the purpose. Between April and July, these consultants make most of their annual earning ranging from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh, depending on the demand for seats in top colleges.
College managements organise meetings of consultants ahead of the new academic year and offer them attractive commissions to fill the seats. The consultants are offered commissions up to Rs 2 lakh for an MBBS seat and Rs 1 lakh for an engineering seat under the management quota with a condition that they should ensure payment of an on-the-spot donation of Rs 40 lakh for an MBBS seat and Rs 15 lakh for an engineering seat.
To reach the target group, the consultants get hold of the mobile phone database of all the Eamcet applicants, even if it means bribing the staff in the Eamcet convenor’s office. They send text messages to these Eamcet applicants repeatedly, urging them to contact them for admissions in management quota in reputed colleges. Based on the financial status of students, the agents refer them to various colleges. They collect commissions from the managements on each admission made, based on the donation collected by the colleges. All management seats are filled in top colleges before the announcement of Eamcet results and donation amount varies every day.
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