Engineering colleges get Telangana government support for AICTE extension

Hyderabad: After the first wave, now the second wave of Covid has come as boon for the management of private engineering colleges. It may be mentioned here that the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) had given approvals for the academic previous academic year based on the online submission of the self-assessment reports by the college managements.

However, the AICTE put its food down on the approvals following reports that several colleges in Telangana have no building regulation certificates from the civic bodies.

Against this development the AICTE had earlier communicated that it will not give approvals for the academic year 2021-22 and beyond, unless they submit building regulation certificates from the respective civic bodies where they are located.

This in turn is expected to adversely affect about more than 278 engineering colleges, most of them affiliated to the Jawaharlal Nehru Technological Univeristy, Hyderabad.

Against this backdrop, and in a bid to diffuse the situation, the Telangana State government asked the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) to extend approval to 238 engineering colleges for the academic year 2021-22, and beyond.

Telangana State Chief Secretary Somesh Kumar in a letter to the AICTE Chairman, Prof Sahasrabudhe, said that there are 238 engineering colleges in and around Hyderabad that have pending building regularization issues.

The colleges falling under GO 111 have already applied to Hyderabad Metropolitan Development Authority (HMDA) for regularization. However, the applications are yet to be scrutinized due to various reasons like pending court cases, non-submission of the expert committee report, Covid-19 etc. The Government will address the regularization issues at the earliest immediately after receiving the expert committee report on a priority basis.

Further, the colleges have been continuously approved by AICTE for more than the last two decades. Given the above, he asked to grant an extension of approval for the academic year 2021-22 in the larger interests of the student community for the colleges falling under G.O. 111.