Hyderabad: Questions raised over government withdrawal of aided posts

Hyderabad: What is the rationale for successive governments withdrawing aided posts in the degree colleges in Telangana? Teachers Constituency MLC in Telangana Legislative Council, A Narsi Reddy said, "Withdrawal of the government support to the aided colleges had started in 2004. There are very few government colleges in Telangana. We hoped the situation would change after the formation of Telangana, but the current government's decision to withdraw aided posts in the degree colleges is the same followed by the successive governments in erstwhile united Andhra Pradesh."

He said that there are a little over 900 government degree colleges. Out of which, 125 are government and 62 are aided degree colleges. The remaining 700 are private degree colleges.

Some colleges like Venkateswara Degree College, Suryapet and Lakshmi Narsimha Swamy Degree College, Bhongir were provided aided posts and grants to develop infrastructure for years. Similarly, there are colleges like AV College, Bhadruka College, VV College and many more which played a key role in the education sector and turned into education landmarks of Hyderabad city.

The State government should protect them and preserve the legacy of landmarks that contributed a lot to the education and human capital of the city and the State, he added.

Withdrawal of aid has left 80 per cent of faculty positions in the aided degree colleges remain unfilled for about two decades. The colleges have been filling the gap with temporary lecturers to run the classes by collecting additional fee from the students.

In turn, it is burdening the students and parents financially. Also, complete withdrawal of aided posts results in aided colleges to become private management colleges. The assets of infrastructure developed over the years with the government grants will also go into their control.

Speaking to The Hans India, Commissioner of Collegiate Education Navin Mittal said, "There is no withdrawal of aided posts by the government. It was due to a Government Order issued 14 years ago. Accordingly, when a person in the aided post retires, the post automatically goes away. So, there is no new decision taken by the State government in this issue," he clarified.