NRIs can appear for Eamcet exam

Hyderabad, Dec. 7: In a gesture to the non-resident Indian (NRI) students, the state government has decided to allow them to appear for Eamcet from this year.

With this, the NRI students, based on the marks secured, can claim seats in engineering, pharmacy, medical, dental and agriculture courses under the convenor quota.

Till now, the NRI students were not allowed to appear for Eamcet as the eligibility norms stipulated that the “candidates should be of Indian nationality” to be eligible to write the exam.

The orders issued by the government states, “persons of Indian origin (PIO)/overseas citizen of India (OCI) card holders” are also eligible to appear for the exam.

At present, NRI students can seek admission only under the management quota. Currently, the management quota in professional colleges is restricted to 30 per cent in the state. However, the tuition fee for the management seats is nearly three times that of the seats under the convenor quota.

As per the government prescribed fee structure, while the tuition fee for engineering and pharmacy courses is Rs 30,200 per annum in convenor quota, it is Rs 91,700 in the management quota. Similarly, the tuition fee for medical course in convenor quota is Rs 55,000 per annum and Rs 4 lakh per annum in management quota.

However, none of the colleges follow the government-prescribed fee structure. The reputed colleges have been known to charge around Rs 10-15 lakh for popular engineering streams and Rs 50-70 lakh for MBBS seats.