AP eases rules for NRI students

Hyderabad July 31: The state government has set the stage for the ‘back-door entry’ of ordinary students under the garb of NRI students into professional courses with the inclusion of the ‘NRI-sponsored student’ clause. While some states like Punjab have done away with ‘NRI-sponsored seats’ following complaints of large-scale irregularities which led to legal tangles, the state government has now decided to embrace the same concept by issuing three GOs (141, 142 & 143) on Thursday. The orders include the clause ‘NRI sponsored student’ for admissions into professional courses like engineering, MBA and MCA.

In the process, the state government has diluted the norms it had fixed to follow merit in the admissions for management quota seats in accordance to the directions of the High Court. It’s a known fact that though the management quota seats are called ‘NRI seats’, the students occupying them haven’t ever crossed the international border. A student with top rank in Eamcet sits in the same class as an NRI-sponsored student who was not even qualified in the test and secured only pass marks in the intermediate.

There were allegations that some of the top engineering colleges in the state, which face huge demand for management quota seats, pressurised the government to include the clause ‘NRI-sponsored students’ along with ‘NRI students’ seats. Without the clause ‘NRI-sponsored’, the colleges were forced to offer the vacant NRI seats to merit students. Several colleges have not even issued notifications for admissions into NRI quota seats so far.
(Source : DC)