The state government has decided to give a new lease of life to two old orders (GOs 74 and 75, issued in 2011) to check sale of management quota seats in top engineering colleges. The government’s latest orders — GO No. 66 and GO No. 67, issued on September 3, 2012 — aimed at ensuring merit and transparency in filling up management quota seats by following the online admission method under the supervision of the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education, were stayed by the AP High Court on September 11.
The HC order had led to confusion among students and college managements as there was no clarity on the norms that would be applicable to fill management seats. Deputy CM Damodar Raja Narasimha, who also holds the portfolio of higher education, reviewed this issue with officials on Thursday. It was decided to restore the old GOs 74 and 75 and implement them in letter and spirit to ensure that the management quota seats are allotted as per the merit list and there is transparency in the process. The old GOs empower APSCHE to constitute inspection teams to inspect the colleges and monitor management quota admissions on a day-to-day basis.
“We have decided to constitute inspection teams that will periodically inspect the colleges to find out if the managements are issuing applications to all the students who seek them, whether they are maintaining a record of the number of applications issued and whether the merit list was prepared properly before allotting seats,” said Mr Raja Narasimha. He added that a separate toll-free number will be provided at APSCHE to enable students to lodge complaints against colleges that refuse to issue application forms or that deny seats to meritorious students. “APSCHE will not ratify admissions that were made in deviation of the norms. They have to follow merit and transparency in management quota admissions,” the deputy chief minister said.