Telangana: EAMCET goof-up leaves minority students in a fix

Express News Service |

Published: 10th June 2018 05:15 AM

HYDERABAD: In a major goof-up, the EAMCET convener who released the seat allotment for first phase on Friday asked several students belonging to minority section, who are eligible for full scholarship to pay 65 per cent of the fee for the college that they were allotted to. The amount varied from `70,000 to even `1.5 lakh.Though the directive was retracted only after a few hours, and students were asked to download their provisional allotment order once again after the issue was brought to light, parents and activists allege that mere retracting the wrong information without giving due publicity to correct information will prove detrimental for the future of large number of deserving candidates from the minority community, they alleged.

The matter was highlighted by an MCA student of CBIT, Musttakk Ahmed, when a relative approached him saying though his daughter had been allotted a seat in CBIT, he was asked to pay `78,500 towards the tuition fee. “Since his financial condition did not permit, he said that he would enroll his daughter in another colleges where the fee is lower. On my insistence we met the convenor, who said that the error would be rectified in a couple of hours and by late afternoon when we downloaded the form, it showed the amount payable as zero,” said Musttakk.

MBT leader Amjed Ullah Khan raised the issue and tweeted the allotment order of the student Shaik Mehatha Banu, daughter of a worker in jewellery shop. He urged students not to pay the fees. “@TelanganaCMO Sir, As per GO Rt No.63 all minority students are eligible for full fee reimbursement on par with SCs/STs but Convenor TSCHE asking minority students to pay full fees within 4 days.” (sic) read his tweet.

As per the state government orders, Minority students akin to SC/ST students are eligible for full reimbursement regardless of their rank provided their annual income is less than `1 lakh.

“The problem is also that a lot of minority students are not aware of this facility and they think that they are eligible only for scholarship of `35,000 and the remaining fee they have to foot on their own account. As a result, several students opt out of good college because their fees is high,” said Musttak.

Navin Mittal, TSEAMCET convener and commissioner of Technical Education, refuted any error in detailing the fee during the seat allotment process.

“Any SC/ST and minority candidate who falls within the income criteria set by the government are eligible for the scholarship. If it had not been reflected at the time of allotment it means their allotment was not linked to their certificate,” he said.

‘BTech colleges selling seats for `5 lakh -`15 lakh’

Hyderabad: With the seat allotment for the first phase of EAMCET 2018 has been completed, Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha, Hyderabad, has alleged that seats in private engineering colleges are being sold for anything between `5 lakh and `15 lakh. The organisation submitted a representation to the chairman of State Council of Higher Education here on Saturday, demanding all applications under the management and NRI quota be displayed on the TSCHE and college websites. “The managements of private engineering colleges are selling seats at exorbitant rates. When deserving candidates approach the top 10 colleges, they are told that there are no vacancies,” said A Vinay kumar, BJYM State unit president.