JNTUH denies arm-twisting engg colleges

Hyderabad: The Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad (JNTUH) has denied allegations of harassment of private engineering colleges during their inspections to grant renewal of affiliations.

According to official sources, the JNTUH has taken up inspection of about 272 engineering colleges applied for renewal. As part of inspections, the varsity teams have been verifying the compliance of colleges to the rules and regulations prescribed by the All India Council of Technical Education (AICTE).

Also, the JNTUH too has prescribed certain rules like linking the profiles of the faculty members working in private engineering colleges with their Aadhaar numbers. Reporting of daily attendance of the faculty members and the like were among the few other rules that the university has been insisting on.

But, the colleges have been complaining that the university officials were harassing them to comply with certain rules.
Speaking to The Hans India, a senior university official said the main grievance of the colleges towards the JNTUH was that State universities like Osmania, Kakatiya and others were not insisting for compliance by engineering colleges affiliated to them like the JNTUH.

They are also voicing that it would be difficult to run the colleges by complying with all rules and regulations. Because, according to some colleges, it is practically not possible to implement those rules, he added. But, implementing the Aadhaar linking and daily reporting of attendance has reduced menace of the same faculty members working in multiple colleges. This will help in colleges recruiting adequate number of faculty members, in turn, it improves the standards of teaching, the sources said.

Also, the majority of the colleges affiliated to the JNTUH are recipients of funds under fee reimbursement scheme. And, the inspections had sent a clear message that only those genuinely interested could run their colleges in the State, the officials said.

When contacted the varsity Vice-Chancellor Prof A Venugopal Reddy, he said, “There are no new rules being imposed on the colleges. We only verify whether the colleges are following the rules and regulations which they had agreed at the time of applying for affiliation and permissions to establish the colleges.”