AICTE does not seem to recognise Telangana as a separate state yet

HYDERABAD : All India Council of Technical Education, the regulator of technical education in the country, does not seem to recognise Telangana as a separate state yet. Maps printed in the approval handbook for the 2015-16, released by the AICTE, show Telangana as part of Andhra Pradesh.

Telangana also does not figure in the lists of states given out by the AICTE in the handbook. The regulatory body has initiated the process for the applications for new engineering and other technical colleges.

Starting new engineering and other technical colleges or courses in existing colleges needs the approval of the AICTE. Additionally, the colleges and courses also need to be affiliated to the university in whose jurisdiction the college is going to be operational. Even addition of new courses needs the AICTE and university approvals.

The online application process will end on February 20, while processing of the applications will go on till April 10. AICTE also released an ‘Approval Process Handbook’ for the upcoming academic year 2015-16 to provide information on the approval process.

P. Rajeshwara Reddy, chairman, Consortium of Private Engineering College Managements of Telangana, said, “Even in the online approval process application, it may be like that.

We need to check. We have to inform AICTE about this issue. The problem is that the AICTE also does not have a regular chairman. We will inform the officials. But since the handbook is already printed, we cannot do anything this year.”