At last, AP opts for separate EAMCET: Entrance Exam dates in AP

The Engineering, Agriculture and Medicine Common Entrance Test (EAMCET) 2015 in Andhra Pradesh will be conducted on May 10 and will be conducted by the JNTU-Kakinada.

Minister for HRD Ganta Srinivasa Rao announced on Wednesday that other common entrance tests to be held are ECET and PECET on May 14, ICET on May 16, PGCET on May 25, EdCET on May 28 and LawCET on May 30.

Ganta slammed Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao after its many efforts to convince the Telangana Government to have a common test for the two States failed; the minister said Andhra Pradesh Government decided to conduct EAMCET for its students on its own. A common EAMCET would have benefited students of both States.

The AP Government has decided to conduct EAMCET on its own following requests from students, their parents and students' organizations, since the students would suffer in future if the entrance test is not held during May, though the government had legal options, the Minister said. A total of 1, 65,000 seats are available in the engineering colleges of the universities and under private management in the State and 1, 16,732 of them will be filled up under Convener's quota. More than two lakh students are expected to appear for the test.

He said students from Andhra Pradesh who wish to join some prestigious engineering colleges in Hyderabad have to appear for the EAMCET to be conducted by Telangana on May 14.The bitter fight between AP and Telangana was not resolved in spite of the intervention of the Governor Narasimhan as Telangana did not want to give local status to students from AP by agreeing for a common EAMCET.

Ironically there were 425 engineering colleges in and around Hyderabad, Ranga Reddy, Nalgonda and Medak districts. Out of the total 675 colleges of the united AP, nearly 4 lakh students appeared for EAMCET then of which Telangana students including those from Hyderabad were roughly two lakhs. "Now the students of Telangana get a better chance in these colleges," says Telangana education minister Kadiam Srihari.