AP Govt’s Apathy Towards Eamcet Drives Top Students to Telangana

K Jayadev

The Andhra Pradesh government appears to be unconcerned about the plight of children and youth of the state. The flippant attitude of the state towards the all important Eamcet (Engineering, Agriculture and Medical Common Entrance Test) is an example which highlights this point. As critics have pointed out, AP Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu was not interested in children and their future because they were not eligible for voting!

True to the critics' observation, the state government has not yet finalised the dates of Eamcet counseling and this seems to have turned out to be a boon for Telangana. The cream of the students eyeing Telangana and who prefer to study in Hyderabad. AP's loss is Telangana's gain!

In all probability, counseling for AP Eamcet will be delayed as the affiliation of colleges under various state run universities is not yet finalised. From this year, the certificate verification process will be done online. However, the government is yet to make requisite infrastructure arrangements like online verification centres or systems etc.

To everyone's surprise AP Eamcet was held much earlier than Telangana and the results released on May 7, while the TS Eamcet examinations were still on. The counseling was scheduled for May 26. This made everyone think that from this year, the government would make efforts to attract some talent, but unfortunately, the government machinery was more into working for the ruling party and supporting the different protests that the state was directly involved in.

There has been no delay from any central authority, as claimed by a few politicians. The All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has given the list of permitted colleges and courses in the first week of May. The affiliation of colleges under universities like JNTU Kakinada and JNTU Anantapur is yet to be finalised. And this has to be done by the state. In fact, we come to hear that the university officials have just started the process and are expected to complete it by the end of this month.

Yet another show of lethargy by the government officials is that they have not yet made any kind of arrangements for the online certificate verification process. The tech-savvy Chandrababu and his team make proud claims of using technology for free, fair and fast administration, but they are probably not aware that their officials are not geared up to match these claims.

On the other hand, Telangana government is getting ready for counseling from May 25. They have kept everything ready for online verification of the certificates as well as systematic process for children to choose their course in their choice of college.

As everyone is aware, the students have attended both AP and TS Eamcets and this makes things all the more difficult for AP. All the candidates who have scored well in AP and TS Eamcet are getting ready to join colleges in Telangana due to the delay in AP Eamcet counseling. Vijayawada's Snigdha Manohari, who has secured good rank in AP and TS Eamcet says, "I would prefer to do my engineering in Telangana. Moreover they are going ahead with counseling. We will miss the best colleges allotment if we wait for AP Emacet." Despite students willing to study in their own state, the government seems to be driving them away. In fact till now they have not announced the exact date when the counseling would start. The officials at AP State Council for Higher Education have unofficially mentioned that it would be in June first week.

"If there is no clarity, we can not leave our children's future in their hands. It is better we consider attending the TS counselling and join there. My son has got good rank and we are sure he will get into reputed college in Hyderabad," says Nagabushanam, father of Avinash from Rajahmundry, who has completed Intermediate and looking at joining engineering in Telangana.

Despite the exodus of top students and good performing students from AP to Telangana, the ruling TDP government was not interested in children. Chandrababu and his team of ministers are busy making accusations against BJP government in the Centre, but little do they know that in their backyard, things were much worse and the state was losing talent just because of its apathy!