The state government on Sunday fixed the common fee for engineering courses at Rs 35,000 per annum, an increase of Rs 4,000, and categorically stated that it would not go beyond that. There will be no fee hike for MBA, MCA and B.Pharmacy courses. Stating that the revised fee would be applicable for two years, the government made it mandatory for the college managements to submit an undertaking on Monday stating that it was acceptable to them for that period.
The managements, meanwhile, demanded that the government withdraw its decision to raid the institutions with task forces comprising IAS, IPS and vigilance officials to inspect their academic standards and infrastructure in colleges as a prerequisite for accepting the common fees. The common fee of Rs 35,000 for engineering courses is applicable for both the merit quota (70 per cent of seats) and the management quota. Till date, the government had been implementing the variable fee structure, Rs 31,000 for merit quota and Rs 95,000 for management quota seats. It had to come up with a common fee structure for both quotas following a recent Supreme Court ruling.
While the government claimed that almost all colleges had agreed to the common fee and that it would announce the Eamcet engineering counselling schedule on Monday, the college managements were divided on the issue. Some colleges categorically stated that they would settle for nothing less than Rs 40,000 while some said that they would agree to Rs 35,000 provided that the government applied it only for this year and agreed for a fee revision next year. Some colleges also threatened to approach the Andhra Pradesh High Court on Monday.