Govt says no to House panel

• Oppn stages a walk-out in the Council
• Cong disputes govt claim on disaffiliation

Hyderabad: The Opposition members of Legislative Council staged a walk-out over the issue of disaffiliation of 163 engineering and pharmacy colleges with JNTU. They demanded constitution of a house committee on the issue, which was rejected.

The issue was first raised during question hour by Syed Altaf Hyder Razvi and Syed Aminul Hasan Jafri. Joining the issue, the Congress members disputed the government’s claim that these colleges were disaffiliated because they had violated the norms. Leader of Opposition, D Srinivas pointed out that students are ones who would be at the receiving end due to the government’s irrational decision. It was also alleged that the decision was taken to reduce the burden of fee reimbursement. Prof K Nageshwar questioned the veracity of the inquiry, as the JNTUH seldom has the staff equipped to conduct such an exercise and produce report within a short span. Despite attempts by the Minister to convince the Opposition, Srinivas insisted that a house committee be constituted. In his response, Deputy CM Kadiyam Srihari explained that all the details of the colleges and reasons for disaffiliation were placed online and there was no need to constitute a house committee. He said that after inspecting 163 colleges offering 846 Under Graduate (UG) courses (B Tech or B Pharma), the JNTUH has disaffiliated 814 UG courses for the first year of the Academic Year 2014-15. The present strength of students studying in 163 colleges are 83,491 (Engineering) and 1441 (B Pharma) of 2nd, 3rd and Final Year.

“The students of the 2nd, 3rd and Final year in these colleges will be allowed to complete their courses in the same colleges and the action would not impact on their fees reimbursement,” the Minister assured. Dissatisfied by the Minister’s reply, the members of the Congress and TDP staged a walkout.