A majority of the 585 engineering colleges that are to be inspected by task force teams constituted by the state government, decided to boycott the inspection on Monday. The college managements have resolved not to submit any details on faculty, salaries, infrastructure facilities and academic standards existing in their respective colleges to the task force teams as mandated by the state, by September 20.
The managements were told to upload all these details on the website by September 20 to enable the inspectors to verify their claims. These 585 colleges had agreed to a moderate fee hike of Rs 4,000, from Rs 31,000 to Rs 35,000 per annum, as proposed by the government. The remaining 85 colleges claimed higher fees, ranging from Rs 50,000 to Rs 1.05 lakh on the grounds that they paid AICTE pay scales to their faculty and provided better facilities for students. Representatives of over 200 engineering colleges met at Stanley College of Engineering and Techno-logy for Women to discuss the issue and decided not to cooperate with the state-appointed teams.
“Let the task force teams first inspect those colleges that have claimed higher fees to verify whether the claims they have made are correct. Where is the need to inspect the colleges that have agreed to the fee that was proposed by the government?” asks Mr K.V.K. Rao, chairman, Educational Institutions' Protection Committee. He claims, “In the name of inspections, they are trying to create panic among the managements, students and parents at the time of crucial admissions session. We will not submit any details to task force teams or upload those details on the website.”
He added that the very composition of the task force teams comprising officials from the police, vigilance, HMDA and GHMC departments, shows the “hidden agenda” of the government, which is harassing the managements in the name of inspections, he said. They said they will decide the future course of action on Wednesday based on the outcome of the meeting with the CM.