Anantapur: The AP government’s plan of doing away with the Eamcet exam for admission into Engineering, along the lines of Tamil Nadu, might lead to the private colleges fleecing the students and the entire process becoming a money-making racket.
Minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao, during his visit to Anantapur district on Friday, announced that the government wanted to introduce a Tamil Nadu type of admission system for engineering in the state. A committee would also be constituted to study the system being implemented in that state.
Owing to the delay in the commencement of the counselling more than 65,000 Intermediate students from both AP and Telangana have already applied for migration certificates to join colleges in other states. And, sources said that this step — emulating Tamil Nadu — would further confuse them.
An engineering expert observed that the Tamil Nadu type of admission system would be a big financial burden for the students as they would have to appear for a number of entrance tests for different colleges.
A leading private college in Tamil Nadu has been conducting entrance tests at the national level and collecting at least Rs 2 crore as entrance test fees.
Students from both AP and Telangana are already appearing for at least five tests expecting seats in good colleges with an intension to get campus placements at the national level.
“What is there to study from the neighbouring state? Students will be robbed in the name of visiting different colleges if the Eamcet entrance system is put off,” said a senior professor from Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University in Anantapur.
He added that at least the national-level common entrance AIEEE should be followed for admission or some other common admission system on a single application.
Eamcet was introduced in 1976 by four colleges of JNTU and other varsities later joined.
Of the 400 private engineering colleges in the state, almost half are in a sorry state and rely on fee reimbursements.
YSRC MLA Y. Visweswar Reddy meanwhile accused the TD government of trying to remove the fee reimbursement system.“They want to cut fee reimbursement for engineering students by opting for useless methods and by wasting time,” he said.
