Whose fault is it anyway?

Hyderabad: In a bizarre incident, as many as 258 first year students were denied hall-tickets for writing the first year Intermediate examinations that commenced on Wednesday as the college was not recognised by the Telangana Intermediate Board (TIB).

The Irate students staged a protest before the college in the morning and in the afternoon at the Secretariat demanding justice. Leaders of All India Students Federation and Students Federation of India also extended their support to the affected students.

The State government which had viewed the issue very seriously decided to allow these students to appear for the advanced supplementary examinations to be held in May. Deputy Chief Minister Kadiyam Srihari said these students would also be permitted to appear for the EAMCET exams. Srihari also directed the officials to book criminal cases against the college management.

Secretary, Board of Intermediate Examinations (BIE) Dr A Ashok said even if these students appeared for supplementary exams they would be treated on par with regular students.

Reacting to the demand of the parents who wanted the board to give them hall tickets and permit them to appear for the examinations from Thursday, Ashok said the parents should have felt suspicious when the students missed two compulsory exams for Intermediate students, Environmental Education and Ethics and Human Values, which were conducted in January.

Again, in February the students did not give the practical exams which were conducted for 30 marks each out of which one had to score a minimum of 11 marks to pass.

The students should have felt suspicious and approached the board when they did not receive hall tickets for the two compulsory exams or at least when they did not give practical examinations. The students and parents blindly believed the principal when he told them that it was not a cause of worry.

However, students and their parents condemned the attitude of the government and the college and demanded immediate justice to them. They asked the government to allow the students to write exams in the present schedule.

College owner Srinivas said though they had applied for recognition, the BIE officials did not respond. He alleged that an officer of BIE took Rs 1 lakh to give login ID to the college to submit rolls of the students but he did not do so.

However, Ashok denied the allegation and said the college owner had run a junior college in Saroornagar in the past and fled with the fee amounts of the students. He said the owner had been making allegations to escape from his responsibility. He said it would not be possible for the officials to change the records of students in the computer and the hall tickets would be generated automatically.