50 colleges fined in Telangana for classes during vacation

Hyderabad: Cracking the whip on errant junior colleges, the Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) has penalised 50 corporate and private junior colleges in the State for running classes during the vacation.

The colleges, most of which were being run by Sri Chaitanya and Narayana educational groups, were fined Rs 1 lakh to Rs 7 lakh depending on the number of days the managements operated during the vacation.

In view of the ongoing TSRTC employees strike, the State government had extended the Dasara holidays from October 14 to October 19 for educational institutions. This was to avoid inconvenience to students. The board also issued specific directions, asking all colleges not to conduct classes and to reopen only on October 21. However, some private and corporate college managements ignored the directions.

A majority of the corporate junior colleges which violated the orders of the government and board were in



Hyderabad, Medchal and Ranga Reddy districts.

District intermediate educational officers who inspected colleges during the vacation served show-cause notices to more than 31 colleges in the three districts.

During the inspections, it was found that several colleges, while declaring holidays for some sections, conducted classes for top batches. To evade inspection by the Board, some were running classes on the top floors of the building.

“We have levied Rs 1 lakh to Rs 7 lakh penalty on corporate and private junior colleges, mostly Sri Chaitanya and Narayana. Despite warning and inspections from the board, the colleges were found to be running classes. We have issued notices to principals concerned,” said Syed Omer Jaleel, secretary, BIE.

The college managements were directed to pay the penalty on or before November 2, and the board has decided to scrap their affiliation if they fail to do so.