While Telangana waits, AP to go ahead with engineering college counselling

Even though the tug of war between the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh over common admissions to engineering colleges is far from over, the Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education has announced that it will go ahead with the already-announced schedule.

After the meeting of the Common Entrance Test Committee, attended by the officials of both the states, APSCHE Chairman Venugopala Reddy said that the verification of certificates of both the states will start from Thursday and conclude on August 23.

“The counselling will be complete by August 31 and classes will start in the first week of September as per the orders of Supreme Court,” he said.

There are 2.15 lakh students, who qualified in EAMCET or common entrance test for admission in engineering colleges in the two states.

The AP State Reorganization Act 2014 has provided for continuing the common admission system in the two states for the next couple of years.

But the provision has already generated a lot of heat and disputes.

The Telangana government wants time till October 31 to start the counselling session as it wants first to decide the nativity of the students to give scholarships only to the local students.

The Supreme Court, in its interim order, asked both the governments to complete the admission process by August 31 and start classes from September first week.

It has fixed the final hearing in the matter on August 11.

Following Wednesday’s meeting of the EAMCET committee, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao held a review meeting with officials of the higher education department.

Officials said that the Telangana government will announce its counselling schedule only after Supreme Court’s final orders on August 11.