Kadiam Srihari Talks About Corporate Colleges

The state government on Thursday told the Assembly that Rs 1.66 crore penalty had been levied on corporate junior colleges for flouting the norms on student intake and fees.

Deputy Chief Minister and education minister Kadiam Srihari said the government would hold special raids on corporate schools and colleges from April 2 to check if classes were being conducted during summer vacation.Mr Srihari said Rs 1.04 crore penalty was collected from Sri Chaitanya group and Rs 62.72 lakh from Narayana group for various violations.

“The vigilance and enforcement department conducted raids on corporate schools and colleges and detected violations regarding enrolling more students than the sanctioned strength and collecting fees other than that prescribed by the government. The affiliations for these institutions were renewed only after penalties were paid and lapses rectified,” he added.

Mr Srihari said the Sri Chaitanya group had 104 recognised schools with enrolment of 54,129, while the Narayana group ran 54 with enrolment of 26,463.

However, he said, there were complaints of these groups running several unauthorised schools and colleges and the matter was being looked into.Besides, Sri Chaitanya group ran 71 junior colleges and Narayana group 86. All these corporate colleges were permitted by successive governments in undivided AP and the Telangana government had not given permission to a single corporate junior college after the state formation in June 2014, he added.

The government had formed special teams to conduct raids on corporate colleges last year and found grave irregularities in institutions run by Sri Chaitanya, Narayana, Gayatri and NRI groups.“These raids revealed shocking things about how corporate educational institutions were functioning. They are holding classes during summer vacation. Unauthoried hostels were set up attached to educational institutions. Students are made to study round-the-clock. There are no sports or games for students resulting in mental agony, which is also cause for suicides,” Mr Srihari said.

Members, cutting across party lines, expressed anguish over the way corporate schools and colleges were functioning and demanded to crackdown on them.Mr Srihari said the raids would be a continuous process and the government had tightened norms on working hours and setting up of hostels.