Kiran makes tech colleges fall in line

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Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on Tuesday convinced most engineering colleges to accept the fee of 35,000 per annum, paving the way for Eamcet counselling to begin. Following a meeting with the CM, representatives of engineering college associations including Ramesh Nimmatoori, C. Malla Reddy and K.V.K. Rao announced that they would file affidavits with the Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee agreeing to the government-mandated fee on August 16.

The managements would submit affidavits that they have drafted themselves, and not those supplied by the government. They intend to include “conditions” such as asking the government to consider another fee hike of up to 5,000 next year and withdrawal of the recent ordinances empowering the government to inspect colleges and cancel permission if they are found to be violating norms.

It remains to be seen whether or not the government will agree to these affidavits. The state-drafted affidavit states that the colleges have accepted the common fee of 35,000 for a period of two years. It rules out any hike in fee for MBA, MCA and B.Pharm courses. There is still uncertainty regarding the fees of the 133 colleges which had submitted audited statements to the Supreme Court and AFRC, seeking a common fee ranging from 50,200 to 1.05 lakh.