ISU urges TAFRC chief to act tough against erring colleges
Hyderabad: Indian Students Union (ISU) state president Papani Nagaraju sought the intervention of Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) chairman Justice Gopal Reddy's intervention in preventing the private unaided engineering college collecting excessive fees and donations from the parents.
In a representation submitted to the TAFRC on Monday, he alleged that many engineering colleges taking autonomous institutions status to collect high fees and donations. Even the second and third-status colleges are now applying to get the autonomous colleges tag to collect donations from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 26 lakh, citing UGC and JNTU-H autonomous colleges. The colleges have been imparting education by the postgraduate qualified teachers and lacking professors, associate professors to teach students. In turn, this is resulting in the students being forced to go for skill training outside of their college, even after completing their courses, he added. The colleges lack advanced labs, and much before the counselling starts, the management is selling seats exploiting the parents' vulnerabilities and sentiments towards their ward's employment careers, assuring jobs with good packages in the multinational companies to robe them.
He urged the TAFRC to stress the need to take action with a full surveillance mechanism on various types of engineering and pharmacy college admissions. He cited that a minimum of Rs 45,000 and a maximum of Rs 70,000 fees have been decided and implemented in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. There is no difference between the management conducted in AP and Telangana. He urged not to permit an increase in the fees set by the colleges in this state.
The ISU leader also said a complaint was filed against this college to the Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee on December 13, 2022 and to the Chief Secretary and the then Education Secretary Vakati Karuna on December 29, 2022. However, no action was taken against the erring colleges, he said.