Web counselling to be get transparent

• Options to be registered along with verification
• Helpline centres may be increased

In an attempt to make the engineering web counseling more transparent, a nine-member committee, constituted by the AP State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE), has suggested that registering of web options shall be made soon after the verification of certificates. This was one among seven key suggestions the committee made in its report submitted to the Chairman of the Council Prof L Venugopala Reddy in Hyderabad on Saturday.

The engineering web counseling, which had been held for a span of two weeks for each phase, will now be completed in just a week with the recommendations, according to a professor who is a member of the committee.

“Till now, the candidate has to first attend for verification of the certificates and then given a scratch card so that he can register his options (of college and course of study) from outside i.e. either from their home or from any Internet centre. The scratch cards are being misused by some brokers to get more admissions for their colleges. We recommended that if the candidate registers his or her options immediately after the verification of certificates is over, this menace can be curbed and there will be no problem for rankers” the member told The Hans India.

The rankers will be allowed to do it in the same helpline centre, the same day and with the help of available information of colleges, fees and seats without any delay. “There will not be any separate dates for registering of web options. Of course, for change of options, the candidates will in any case given some time and during those days, they can alter the options if any” the member explained.

Since it would be burdensome on the web centres to verify certificates and register options simultaneously, the panel recommended that either the number of centres shall be increased or the capacity of the centres be enhanced. So far, the number of helpline centres in the state has been 72 and panel wanted it to make 100. Or, the capacity of the centre, which has been 2 mbps hitherto, should be increased to 10mbps to make the systems work faster and without any delay. The number of work stations will also have to be increased to deal with the heavy load of work, it was recommended.

Another suggestion was that the candidate should allow only one person viz his father or mother or relative or guardian inside the web helpline centre. The name of the person who accompanies the ranker shall be informed at the time of filling up of EAMCET application itself and his or her photo be attached.

The committee member said the recommendations would certainly help rural students who have fallen prey to the dirty tricks of some colleges who have been trying to entice the rankers offering freebies like free transport, free hostel, free meals, rebate in fee, no need to attend the classes but degree certificate guarantee etc. The innocent rankers, in a hurry to get admission to the branch of their choice, handover the scratch cards to the brokers before the options and the brokers (‘consultants’ as they are called by the managements) have been misusing it. Several complaints were received in the past but the Council failed to do justice on the ground that they were informed lately.

But doubts persisted that in the name of addressing the concerns of a few, how far it is correct to trouble thousands of rankers from exercising their web options from outside. The Council which could not provide the info regarding the fee and availability of seats of various colleges even till the last minute of the counseling, is now trying to weed out brokers. But will it be successful given the litigant and foxy nature of the private colleges?