Engineering colleges lobby against inspections

Having successfully stalled the online admission process for management quota seats, private engineering colleges on Tuesday began to lobby against another of their bugbears: inspection of their facilities by the government.

 Management reps met chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy Tuesday and urged him to defer inspections by the Admissions and Fee Regulatory Commitee’s (AFRC’s) task forces to see whether the facilities they offer are commensurate with the fees they charge.

 “We are not against inspections. But at present we are busy with admissions. We requested the government to postpone the inspections. The chief minister responded favourably,” said representatives of college managements.

 Some of them argued that the inspections are not required for all colleges.

 “We have agreed to the government’s fee structure. Where is the need for inspections? Inspections must be conducted only for those colleges that did not agree to the Rs 35,000 fee structure,” said one college rep.

 The managements also requested the chief minister to restrict admissions to 420 seats per college.

 Earlier, the managements met deputy chief minister Damodar Rajanarasimha, who after listening to their grievances, decided to take them to the notice of the CM.

 Within a few hours, he took about a dozen of the reps to the CM.