Students joining the Government junior colleges in Telangana will not have to pay a single rupee from this academic year and they will also be supplied the text books free of cost.

The decision which will bring cheers to 1.15 lakh students expected to study in the Government junior colleges was announced by Deputy Chief Minister and Education Minister Kadiyam Srihari here on Wednesday. However, the facility will be applicable to only Telangana students.

He said that Telangana state is the first to take such a student-friendly decision in the entire country. The State is likely to be burdened with Rs.9 crores per year from free education and another Rs.6 crores from the free distribution of books.

As of now, a student admitted in science courses pays Rs.893 while the students pusuing arts pay Rs.535 as the tuition fee. The books will be distributed by July 31 to English, Telugu and Urdu medium students.

Mr. Srihari said that he expects another 15,000 additional students to join Government colleges to the existing 1.15 lakhs in both first and second year. The Government, he said, had also decided to construct permanent structures for all the 402 junior colleges. They will be equipped with lab and library facilities at the start of the 2016-17 academic year.

Contract lecturers in junior colleges will be regularised as per the norms and the remaining vacancies filled in the proposed recruitment of 25,000 vacancies in the State Government. Lecturers would also be trained periodically.

22 services online

The Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education has decided to make the student services online with time fixed for each service to be delivered. Students can now apply for Eligibility Certificate, Equivalency Certificate, Migration Certificate, Duplicate Marks Memo and True Extracts of marks online and get their certificates within three days.

Similarly, Duplicate pass certificate and Triplicate pass certificate can be acquired within five days. Other services made online include attendance exemption, re-verification of valued answered scripts and supply of photocopies, re-counting of marks, Group change permission, Medium change permission, TC counter signature and Transcripts. Students can apply on ‘www.tsbie.cgg.gov.in’. College management services have also been made online.