Government Harassing Private Colleges: Opposition

The Telangana TDP and CPI today criticized the government for harassing private educational institutions through the police force.

TDP senior leader Ravula Chandrasekhar Reddy alleged that in the name of standards in education, the TRS government was harassing the managements of several private educational institutions in the State.

Speaking to the media, he claimed that the government was using the police to undertake inspections of the colleges without any prior permission, causing huge inconvenience to the students and as well as their parents.

He alleged that 232 engineering colleges had been closed due to such harassment by the TRS government. He said that by the end of 2015 from after the TRS came to power in Telangana, 174 colleges had been closed, and this year 58 more colleges were closed down. Currently only 125 engineering colleges were functional in the State, he said.

There were 11 engineering colleges when KCR was the Mahabubnagar MP, but there were now only two colleges in the district, he pointed out.

Thousands of people had also lost their jobs due to closure of engineering colleges, he stated, and alleged that now the situation was such that the students were going to other States for professional courses.

In the name of standards in education, the State government was harassing the managements of private engineering colleges, he alleged, and asked why the government was targeting the colleges and forcing their closure.

Communist Party of India (CPI) national secretary Dr K Narayana, too, demanded that the State government stop police raids on the private educational institutions.

Narayana addressed a letter to the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao in this regard on Tuesday.

In his letter, Narayana said that the same government which had given permission to the private colleges was now harassing them in the name of raids through the police, alleging that the colleges were bogus, and were claiming bogus scholarships and bogus attendance.

He said that the government needed to control any irregularities in colleges only through the education department, and not by using the police, which was meant to be used to control anti-social elements.

It was not proper for the government to direct the CID, ACB, Intelligence department and Warangal Police Commissionerate to submit a report by conducting raids on educational institutions, he said, adding that the government itself had introduced the fees reimbursement scheme.

Narayana said that the education system would be polluted with the raids. It appeared that the government was more interested in taking revenge than in correcting the system, he opined.

He demanded that the government withdraw the memo issued on April 8, 2016, and create a peaceful atmosphere in the educational institutions.