Hyderabad: MLAs of Congress and the BJP staged a walkout from the Telangana Legislative Assembly on Tuesday citing State government's failure to give a convincing reply on the closure of engineering colleges in the State.The walkout was preceded by a heated debate for over an hour on the issue during Question Hour. Replying to a question raised by MLAs Dr K Lakshman (BJP), G Kishan Reddy (BJP), Akbaruddin Owaisi (MIM), Ryaga Krishnaiah (TDP), D K Aruna (Congress), Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka (Congress) and others, Deputy Chief Minister (Education) Kadiyam Srihari admitted that of 176,770 engineering seats in the State, nearly one lakh were lying vacant.

• Assembly witnesses heated arguments  
• Kadiyam denies reports of 80 engineering colleges facing shutdown
• Opposition members unconvinced, walk out

However, he said that the Education Department had no report on some engineering colleges misusing the fee reimbursement scheme. He also denied reports that nearly 80 engineering colleges are going to be closed from the next academic year.Dissatisfied with the Deputy CM’s reply, Lakshman said the State government was making generic statements on fake engineering colleges. Referring to the statements made by Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao on several occasions, he asked the government to furnish the list of colleges which were operating from poultry or dairy farms. He also wanted the government to name the colleges which were involved in fee reimbursement scam.

Replying to the query, Kadiyam admitted that many colleges were not maintaining standards and were found to be violating the AICTE and JNTU norms. He said the State government was taking action against those colleges to restore the image of Telangana State. He said 163 colleges, offering 814 courses, were de-recognised by the JNTU for violating norms. However, the managements approached the court and on Supreme Court's directions a fact-finding committee was formed.

He said the Supreme Court had directed the State government to submit enquiry report by December 31, 2014, although the third report on the issue was yet to be submitted. He also informed that criminal cases had been registered against 16 colleges for violation of norms. He said many colleges did not fulfill the mandatory conditions of AICTE like built-up area, qualified faculties, modern labs, library and computers.

Speaking on the issue, MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi claimed that nearly 50 engineering colleges had approached the JNTU to surrender their permissions. He sought to know the steps that the government proposes to take to protect the future of second and third year students after the closure of those colleges. Meanwhile, the Deputy CM made it clear that the government did not intend to close the colleges, but wanted to make them follow all the norms. He said only 10 colleges had approached the JNTU to surrender their permission. He said the government would speak to existing students and take a final decision.

BJP MLA G Kishan Reddy pointed out that while the government was targeting private colleges, it was not taking any steps to improve the standards in government colleges. He said that government colleges did not have 650 faculty members and there was no Vice-Chancellor in most of the universities. He also accused the government of not releasing funds under Fee Reimbursement Scheme. Denying the allegations, Kadiam Srihari said the government has released Rs 1,587 crore for nearly 12 lakh students. Not satisfied with the Deputy CM's reply, the Congress and BJP members staged a walk out from the House.

Source: THI