'Honour SC Ruling on Eamcet Admissions'
HYDERABAD: While welcoming the much awaited judgment of the Supreme Court on Eamcet counselling, the Andhra Pradesh government urged its Telangana counterpart to honour the ruling of the Apex court and immediately join counselling without any further delay. The Supreme Court on Monday directed both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh governments to complete the Eamcet admission process by the end of August and begin classes for the current academic session from the first week of September. However, even after the Apex court’s ruling, the Telangana government sought more time to conduct counselling as it needs time to sort out the nativity issue. The SC observation came as a morale booster to the AP government, which had knocked all doors trying to fault the Telangana government’s decision on fee reimbursement and its insistence on 1956 as the cut-off year for nativity. Speaking to reporters at the Secretariat here on Monday, Andhra Pradesh HRD minister Ganta Srinivas Rao said that the SC ruling has vindicated their stand on the issue. The Telangana government should abide by Article 371 D and Presidential Order and the AP Reorganisation Act and stop playing politics and start the counselling at least now, he remarked. Taking exception to Telangana government’s decision to go for an appeal against the SC ruling, the HRD minister said that it is very unfortunate that despite the delay in Eamcet admissions, the Telangana government was still trying to politicise the issue. ‘’We have information that over 20,000 students have already joined various engineering colleges in the neighbouring states and any further delay in the admission process will see more students going to other states,’’ he warned. The minister said that the admission were being conducted according to the provisions provided in Section 95 of the AP Reorganisation Act. Hence the Telangana government has to honour it. ‘’If the Telangana government has any reservation or issues they can be solved through discussions but first let the admission process begin,’’ he remarked.