In a move that will further delay the Eamcet engineering counselling, the Cabinet sub-committee on Wednesday decided to seek legal opinion on releasing the counselling notification without fixing the common fees for engineering colleges.
The committee will meet again on Thursday to find a solution to the vexed issue. The committee also discussed filling management quota seats through “online mode” to ensure transparency and merit and to check sale of seats. The committee might seek opinion of political parties and student organisations about the fee reimbursement issue, after its decision to fix a cap on the fee that would be reimbursed for Backward Class and Economically Back-ward Class students drew criticism from all quarters.
The government could reimburse the entire fee amount for these students if the colleges agree to increase fees to Rs 35,000 from Rs 31,000, against their demand of Rs 50,200. The committee had on August 6 said that the counselling schedule will be notified on Wednesday. But it has been pointed out that conducting the counselling without fixing the fee amount could lead to legal complications and would confuse students and parents who will not be able to decide on a college until they know what fees they will have to pay. “We are trying to fix the fees before the engineering counselling. We are trying to convince the college managements,” said Pithani Satyanarayana, the minister for social welfare.