Engineering Colleges Closure: Congress, BJP Walkout

The MLAs of the Congress and the BJP staged a walk-out from the Telangana Legislative Assembly on Tuesday citing the state government's failure to give a convincing reply on the closure of engineering colleges in the state.

The walkout was preceded by a heated debate for over an hour on the issue during Question Hour.

Replying to a question raised by MLAs Dr K Lakshman (BJP), G Kishan Reddy (BJP), Akbaruddin Owaisi (MIM), Ryaga Krishnaiah (TDP), D K Aruna (Congress), Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka (Congress) and others, Deputy Chief Minister (Education) Kadiam Srihari admitted that of 1,76,770 engineering seats in the state, nearly one lakh were lying vacant.

However, he said that the education department had no report on some engineering colleges misusing the fee reimbursement scheme. He also denied reports that nearly 80 engineering colleges were going to be closed from the next academic year.

Dissatisfied with the Deputy CM's reply, Lakshman said that the state government was making generic statements on fake engineering colleges. Referring to the statements made by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on several occasions, Lakshman asked the government to furnish the list of colleges which were operating from poultry or dairy farms. He also wanted the government to name the colleges which were involved in the fee reimbursement scam.

Replying to the query, Kadiam said that many colleges were not maintaining standards and were found to be violating the AICTE and JNTU norms. He said that the state government was taking action against those colleges to restore the image of Telangana.

He said 163 colleges, offering 814 courses, were de-recognised by the JNTU for violating norms. However, the managements approached the courts, and upon the Supreme Court's directions, a fact-finding committee was formed.

He said that the Supreme Court had directed the state government to submit an enquiry report by December 31, 2014, and that the third report on the issue was yet to be submitted.

He also informed that criminal cases had been registered against 16 colleges for violation of norms.

He said that many colleges did not fulfill the mandatory norms/conditions of the AICTE, including those on built-up area, faculty, labs, library and computers.

Speaking on the issue, MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi claimed that nearly 50 engineering colleges had approached the JNTU to surrender their permissions. He sought to know the steps that the government proposed to take to protect the future of second and third year students after the closure of those colleges.

He advised the government to conduct meetings with the representatives of the minority and non-minority colleges on the issue. He said nearly 30 colleges which were derecognized had adhered to the norms. However, their de-recognition was not cancelled. He said the colleges should be given an opportunity to rectify their lapses.

The Deputy CM made it clear that the government did not intend to close the colleges, but wanted to make them follow all the norms. He said that only 10 colleges had approached the JNTU to surrender their permissions. He said that the government would speak to the existing students and take a final decision.

BJP MLA G Kishan Reddy pointed out that while the government was targeting private colleges, it was not taking any steps to improve the standards in government colleges. He said that government colleges did not have 650 faculty members, and that there was no Vice-Chancellor in most of the universities. He also accused the government of not releasing funds under the fee reimbursement scheme.

Congress MLA P Ajay Kumar asked the government to take action against the managements if they were operating colleges from poultry farms. He said that by repeatedly making such allegations, the government was hurting the self-respect of the students studying in those colleges while also defaming the Telangana state.

Denying the allegations, Kadiam Srihari said that the government had released Rs 1,587 crores for nearly 12 lakh students.

Not satisfied with the Deputy CM's reply, the Congress and BJP members staged a walk-out from the House. (INN)