HYDERABAD: Students and parents of lower and middle-class families expressed unhappiness over the Telangana government approving a significant fee hike for 159 engineering colleges, with many saying that the hike has put colleges offlimits for them.
The minimum fee is Rs 45,000, while it exceeds Rs 1 lakh for about 40 colleges per year. Pailla Gopal, a parent, said he wanted to admit his daughter to Guru Nanak Institute of Technology, but due to a fee of Rs 1.2 lakh, he has been forced to explore other options. Many other parents also expressed similar views, voicing concern over their wards’ education.
Asif Sohail, the president of the Telangana Parents’ Association, said that following the fee hike, he has been flooded with calls from concerned parents about not being able to pay the fees. “This is affecting the careers of many students, who are opting for courses other than engineering as they can’t afford it,” he said.
A. Santosh Kumar, the state president of the Telangana Schools Technical Colleges Employees Association, said that the state government previously hiked the fees in 2019 for a period of three years. He said that the association had urged the government not to hike the fee this year, as many are continuing to reel from the fallout of the Covid19 pandemic on their livelihoods.
Further, A. Santosh Kumar hit out at the colleges for allegedly lobbying for fee hikes citing fake expenses for transport, electricity, water, and staff such as gardeners etc., despite these expenses not being incurred until the online classes were in place. “Colleges have falsely claimed crores of rupees in this manner,” he said.
Another hurdle for financially backward students is the fee reimbursement by the government. Such students, who obtain Eamcet ranks below 10,000, are eligible to get full reimbursement of their fees, while those with ranks above 10,000 get a sum of Rs 35,000.
ABVP state secretary K. Praveen Reddy said that while the fees have been hiked multiple times, the reimbursement aid has remained the same, and subsequently, insufficient to aid those in need.
