The Telangana government issued orders on Saturday creating Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE), thus effectively bifurcating the Andhra Pradesh State Council of Higher Education (APSCHE). The TSCHE will come into effect from June 2, 2014, the appointed day of Telangana State.
The Telangana council will have one vice-chairman, while the Vice-Chancellors of Osmania, Kakatiya, JNTU, Telangana , Mahatma Gandhi, Palamuru and Satavahana universities, will be the ex-officio members.
Officials say as per Section 103 of the A.P. Reorganisation Act, the Telangana government can appoint an authority or an office to implement the laws existing in the combined AP. The TSCHE has been created citing that provision. The next orders will be appointing a nodal officer to workout the modalities of the council bifurcation in consultation with the APSCHE. The chairman and the vice-chairman will be appointed in the due course.
The Telangana Education Minister, G. Jagadish Reddy, said that the Telangana government would now conduct its own counselling as it has its own State Council of Higher Education. The government feels that TSCHE will have all the powers enjoyed by the APSCHE in the united State. So it has the authority to conduct counselling.
The orders, however, have confused students and parents and they see both the governments going on a collision course to prove a point. Will the common counselling continue now is the question haunting them. Telangana officials assure that it will be a smooth process but some officials say the creation of TSCHE will complicate the present admission process.
Though the creation of TSCHE was on the cards for the last one month with officials making the necessary legal and administrative arrangements, the timing of the orders has baffled officials. Some argue that this is to strengthen the State’s case in the Supreme Court on Monday where the engineering admissions issue is coming up. Officials say the Telangana government will now argue that since the TSCHE has been established it will conduct its own counselling without deviating from the existing admission norms like opening 15 per cent seats to students of Andhra Pradesh in all the colleges in Telangana.
