Engineering Students of Telangana Protest Against Fee Hike
ABVP mentioned that they are going to file a Public Interest Litigation or PIL in the High Court (HC) to seek justice.
Students from various private engineering colleges across Hyderabad staged a protest in front of Telangana Admission & Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) office on February 8, 2017, against the ‘indefinite’ fee hike. As per the new fee structure, the students need to shell out around Rs. 20,000 more for joining engineering courses in private engineering colleges.
Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) supported the students during the protest. ABVP mentioned that they are going to file a Public Interest Litigation or PIL in the High Court (HC) to seek justice.
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During the protest, around 60 students tried to enter into TAFRC office. However, TAFRC officials clarified that they had revised the fee for engineering courses as per the orders that were given by High Court. Therefore, reducing course fee by TAFRC is nothing but overruling the order given by HC. So, students have no other option except to file a PIL in High Court.
As per the Government Order (GO) that was released in 2016, the average fee for engineering courses in Telangana is Rs. 46,000 and the maximum fee is around Rs. 80,000 to Rs. 95,000.
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The enrollment in engineering courses has fallen drastically in both the Telugu states, i.e., Andhra and Telangana. In the year 2016, around 60% of engineering seats remained vacant, and Telangana also faced a similar issue.
On the other hand, the government of Andhra Pradesh also hiked the engineering fee in the year 2016. Most of the colleges, students and parents demanded the government to reduce the fee. However, the government has not taken any decision so far in this regard.