The stage is set for inspection of about 680 private engineering colleges in the state by task forces constituted by the state government to verify if the colleges were following norms on maintaining academic standards, infrastructure facilities, faculty and payment of salaries to faculty and non-teaching staff. The process is set to begin within a week. Deputy Chief Minister Damodar Raja Narasimha, who also holds the higher education portfolio, reviewed the issue with officials on Thursday.
Mr Raja Narasimha asked all the engineering colleges to submit to the state government detailed information on their infrastructure facilities, faculty, financial statements on income and expenditure, salaries and fees, within a week. The task forces would then carry out college-wise inspections to verify this information. The inspection process would be completed within three months and the task forces would submit their reports on a college by college basis to the government. These would also be uploaded on the website for public access. The government would produce these reports before the Supreme Court and High Court since the managements had submitted undertakings to them, seeking fee hikes for this year, based on these parameters.
The state government had last month constituted a high-level, four-member committee, comprising senior IAS officer S.K. Sinha, senior IPS officer Umesh Shroff, principal secretary of higher education M.G. Gopal and commissioner of technical education Ajay Jain, for the purpose.