Nearly 100 engineering colleges affiliated to JNTU-Hyderabad were found to have been involved in an “attendance scam”. The college managements would tell students that they could not appear for examinations because they were short on attendance. They then collected up to Rs 15,000 from each student to get the him/her exempted from the attendance requirement.

JNTU-Hyderabad had int-roduced the rule regarding attendance in order to imp-rove standards in engineering education. But some co-llege managements exploited this rule and used it to extort money from stude-nts. JNTU will issue show-cause notices to principals of the engineering colleges concerned on the issue.

Nearly 2.3 lakh students have registered for the ongoing B.Tech semester exams. Of them, nearly 2,500 students were learnt to have been detained by some colleges despite having sufficient attendance. The modus operandi was to exclude the attendance of students who participated in activities such as technology events, sports meets, national seminars, field trips, education trips etc. Some colleges even marked the students as “absent” when they appeared for the semester exams, mid-term exams, supplementary exams etc., in other colleges, where exam centres were allotted.

Colleges illegally detain students
Though the attendance norms of JNTU-Hyderabad clearly stipulate that students engaged in activities such as sports meets, national seminars, etc., should be marked as “present”, the managements of colleges affiliated to the university ignored this directive with an eye to fleecing the students later.
The attendance scam came to light when some 110 students detained by DRK College of Engineering and Technology, located on the city’s outskirts, recently complained to JNTU officials that the management is forcing them to pay up to Rs 15,000 to get attendance exemption.

JNTU, which inquired into the issue, found that out of 110 students detained, around 60 students have the required attendance and are eligible to appear for the exams. Following this, students and parents from other colleges started approaching JNTU with similar complaints. JNTU has found that nearly 100 of its 300 affiliated colleges have illegally detained students.

When contacted, the JNTU-Hyderabad vice-chancellor, Prof. Rameshwar Rao, said: “This is a serious issue. We are investigating thoroughly into the complaints. We will initiate stringent action against the erring colleges. We have already asked the colleges to send the revised attendance sheets of students. Based on that, we are giving opportunity for eligible students to appear for the exams.”

The Controller of Exams, Dr A. Govardhan, urged students to lodge complaints with the university against colleges that violate attendance norms and force students to pay the additional fee to get exemption. “As per norms, there should be 75 per cent attendance. A 10 per cent concession is given on medical grounds. There is no such provision in the university to get attendance exemption by paying a certain amount. If any college does so, it amounts to cheating. My request to such students is to lodge written complaints against the colleges to enable us to initiate action,” he said.