HYDERABAD: Ending the long wait for EAMCET counselling, Andhra Pradesh State Council for Higher Education (APSCHE) on Monday decided to prepare the students for counselling for admission into engineering and other colleges.
Towards this end, the APSCHE announced dates for certificate verification for qualified candidates of EAMCET 2014. Verification will begin on August 7.
However, admissions to both medical and engineering colleges will be done only after the issue of fee reimbursement is resolved by the governments of Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
A CET Committee meeting of 12 core members of ECET, ICET and EAMCET, held at the APSCHE office on Monday, decided to begin the counselling process with certificate verification from August 7.
A notification for certificate verification will be released on July 30 for the qualified students from both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh states, according to Prof L Venugopal Reddy, Chairman of APSCHE. “As the hearing of EAMCET couselling case will be on August 4 in the Supreme Court, we are expecting to get clarity on the issue before starting the process,” he added.
Future of ICET and ECET will be decided only after EAMCET counselling is decided. If the the Supreme Court asks us to extend the date, there will be another review meeting on August 5 to decide further plans based on the judgment. ICET counselling will be started first if EAMCET gets delayed, he added.
Asked if counselling in any one state is possible, he said, “The 10th schedule of AP Reorganisation Act does not allow any of the states to do so. It must be common couselling for both the states.”
Unlike every year, this time, the process of certificate verification will be separated from the process of counselling. This is only to save time for both the governments if the Supreme Court gives a nod to start the process, said Reddy. As the state government of Telangana had already asked the Supreme Court for extension of deadline to conduct EAMCET couselling till October 30, the decision of APSCHE raised many eyebrows.
When asked if there was any pressure from the government of AP to start the process, Reddy said, “This decision is not in favor of any state. This step was taken to stop thousands of our students from migrating to other states for higher education.”
Last year, around 30,000 students from the united Andhra Pradesh state migrated to other states due to delay in counselling. This year, the number could be more as the process of counselling got more complicated.
The process was delayed because both the state governments did not release necessary GOs for three important issues--15 percent NRI quota, college approvals and fee reimbursement. But the Council had to begin the process to avoid criticism for not taking any initiative over the issue as a nodal agency, said officials.
Reddy requested both the state governments to make necessary arrangements for smooth conduct of certificate verification. There will be around 60 verification centers across both the states. Qualified candidates can approach the nearest center, he said. Candidates can choose the options once the state governments give clarity over fee reimbursement and nativity issues, he added. He hoped that both the governments will cooperate with the Council in the process.
The higher education officials said the main intention of this meeting was to consult both the governments and seek their view on the issue. However, only nine of the 12 core members were present at the meeting.