With the Telangana High Court providing relief to private engineering colleges in the form of an interim order and Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) failing to issue any notification on fee structure so far, the students are facing the prospect of paying exorbitant fees this academic year.
The first phase of counselling for engineering courses will begin on Tuesday and students of most colleges have to pay their fees on or before September 13. On August 23, around 79 private engineering colleges secured an interim order from the High Court, which allows them to collect an enhanced fee from the students as per the fee structure notified earlier by TAFRC. Ironically, the fee regulator is yet to notify fee structure for the block period of 2022-23 to 2024-25.
In these circumstances, the engineering fee per annum has gone up beyond Rs 1 lakh in 36 engineering colleges in the State. For example, CBIT is charging Rs 1.73 lakh fee per annum, while Vasavi, CVR and BVRIT are charging Rs 1.55 lakh. Srinidhi, VNR, and VJIT are collecting Rs 1.5 lakh and MVSR Rs 1.45 lakh per annum.
As per the High Court’s interim orders, though the colleges are free to collect the fee from the students as set by them for now, the fee structure is contingent on the fee which will be notified by TAFRC in the near future. If the notified fee is less than the fee collected by the colleges, they will have to refund the differential amount to the students.
The most affected by this fee structure of engineering colleges are the economically weaker sections, which include the Backward Castes and the economically backward communities, as the State government has not yet taken a decision on the proposal for increasing the amount of fee reimbursement for these sections.
On August 1, TAFRC had sent a report to the State government recommending a status quo on the fee structure keeping in mind the pandemic situation and the economic hardships being faced by the people.
However, due to the State government’s indecisiveness in taking a decision on the issue and also because the initial counselling for the engineering seats started on August 23, engineering colleges got an opportunity to go to court and get an interim order to continue with the fee structure which they had submitted to TSAFRC.
Now, the most affected students will be those from the backward classes and the economically weaker sections, including the SCs and STs, whose ranks are above 10,000. For those who secure ranks 10,000 and above, the State government reimburses the entire fee amount. But for those who can’t secure a rank within 10,000, the State government will be paying only Rs 35,000 under the present reimbursement scheme.
That means those from the weaker sections will have to initially bear the cost of paying the fee by fending for themselves, at least for the time being. Those who can’t mobilise money before September 13, will have to give up their hopes for getting admission into a reputed college during the first round of counselling.
No money? Forget admission
Students from the weaker sections will have to initially bear the cost of paying the fee. Those who can’t mobilise funds before September 13, will have to give up their hopes for getting admission into reputed colleges
Courtesy : Edex
