HYDERABAD: To the delight of the State government, Telangana had made it to the list of Top 10 cleanest States in the Swachh Survekshan 2018 rankings earlier this year. But now, to the disappointment of one and all, the State’s higher educational institutions failed to make it to Swachhata Ranking Awards 2018 for the Higher Educational Institutions announced by the Union HRD Ministry.
The State has 22 universities, including three central varsities, and none of these made to the Swachch campus rankings released on Monday.
According to HRD Ministry, this year pan-India, out of 6,029 institutes the 51 best institutions were then chosen in eight different categories.
What is intriguing is not that none of the higher education institutions from the State made it to the list but that a majority did not even apply for the awards. A senior official from Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE) told Express that he did not remember if any institution from the State had participated in the rankings. Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, Hyderabad, though had applied, did not qualify.
On the condition of anonymity, an official of the varsity said, “The NSS unit of the university has done a lot of work pertaining to Swachh Bharat. Maybe all documentation was not sent to the MHRD which is why we did not get the ranking.”
Officials from the Osmania University, English and Foreign Languages University and the University of Hyderabad confirmed that they did not participate in the rankings due to lack of knowledge.
Meanwhile, the educationists expressed disappointment attributing it to the State government’s negligence towards the education sector.
Three Andhra varsities secure top 10 positions
While Telangana scored a duck in the list, three varsities from neighbouring Andhra Pradesh secured Top 10 positions in the rankings. Acharya Nagarjuna University, Guntur was ranked the fifth best university under the Government University category and Dravidian University, Kuppam, Chittoor and Koneru Lakshmaiah Educational Foundation, Guntur were placed at ninth and 10th positions respectively under the University (residential category).