The much-delayed EAMCET Engineering counselling began amid disruptions, protests and tussle between the parents and agitators in Krishna district on Monday.
Going by the A.P. High Court’s directive, the counselling was scheduled to begin at the three helpline centres in the district, but it commenced only at two centres. While it began at Andhra Loyola College and SRR and CVR Government Degree College, it did not take off at Government Polytechnic College, as the lecturers had decided to abstain from the counselling duty in support of the APNGOs, who are protesting against the proposed bifurcation of the State.
As per the schedule, the students, who had secured ranks between 1 and 5,000 were supposed to attend the counselling at the polytechnic college, 5,000 to 10,000 at Loyola College and 10,000 to 15,000 at SRR and CVR on the first day. The session was not held at the Polytechnic College, hence the students, a few who were from distant villages, rushed to the Loyola and SRR colleges.
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At Loyola and SRR colleges too, the certificate verification process was stalled for an hour, as members of APNGOs and Student JAC led by Devineni Avinash forced the authorities to stop the process. This led to minor tussle between the protesters and the parents who were present at the spot.
While the parents contended that the counselling process was anyway delayed by over a month by the Government, it cannot be delayed further as the process was going on smoothly in the Telangana region, the protesters tried to convince them by saying that every one including the parents and students should join the stir as it was nearing a decisive stage and it was for the unity of the State.
After the brief disruption, the process began at both the colleges and there were no further untoward incidents. At all the three colleges there was a posse of security personnel drawn from both the State and the Central paramilitary forces. The Commissioner of Police B. Srinivasulu also inspected the security arrangements.
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In total there are 34 notified helpline centres in the 13 Seemandhra districts and out of which 19 are in Government Polytechnic Colleges and the rest in degree and private colleges. The 800-odd polytechnic college lecturers decided to abstain, so it is now left to the degree and private colleges to fulfil the verification process, so that the students can go ahead with the web options, which is open from August 22 to September 3.
“We will be overburdened, but we have decided to work overtime to see that the process is taken care of,” said lecturer of a degree college.