Hyderabad: Charging that private engineering colleges have turned education into a money-spinning racket, the BJP’s ST and Dalit Morchas staged a protest on Tuesday over what they allege is the illegal sale of reserved category seats in Telangana. The leaders claimed that B Category (Management Quota) and C Category (NRI Quota) seats earmarked for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes are being sold for crores, right under the government’s nose.
Leading the protest, BJP Tribal Morcha State President Dr. Kalyan Nayak and Dalit Morcha State President Kondeti Sridhar met Telangana State Council of Higher Education Chairman V. Balakishta Reddy at Masab Tank, submitting a detailed memorandum. They said several private colleges were demanding anywhere between Rs 10 and 15 lakh for these seats, blatantly ignoring reservation norms meant to help SC and ST students.
“These colleges are making a mockery of the reservation system,” Dr. Nayak told reporters. “They’re playing with the futures of poor and underprivileged students.” Sridhar echoed the frustration: “It’s a clear violation of the law. The administrators behind this must be held accountable.”
They named a long list of colleges, including CBIT, Anurag University, Mallareddy University, CVR, Guru Nanak, MVSR, Ace, Shreyas, Vardhaman, Srinidhi, Gokaraju, Gitanjali, Vigyan, BV Raju, VNR Vignanjyoti, and Narayanamma—charging that these institutions repeatedly violated reservation norms, leaving SC and ST students in the lurch.
“Education isn’t a commodity to be bought and sold,” Dr. Nayak fumed. “We want an immediate inquiry and strict action against these colleges. They’re looting students under the guise of education.”
The leaders warned that if the government failed to act, they would take their protest statewide. “We will not rest until justice is done,” Sridhar said. “The government must protect the rights of SC and ST students.”