Only 12 govt degree colleges established in TS since 2014: RTI

Hyderabad: Only 12 new government degree colleges have been established since the formation of Telangana, revealed an RTI reply. The RTI was filed by Rajesh Allati, a resident of Meerpet in Rangareddy,

In its reply, Collegiate Education Department said only 12 new government degree colleges were established in Telangana since 2014. Out of the 12, 4 have been set up in Hyderabad, 2 in Rangareddy, 1 in Medchal Malkajgiri, 2 in Vikarabad, 1 in Nalgonda, and 2 in Komaram Bheem Asifabad.

The RTI response noted that after bifurcation, 117 government degree colleges remained in Telangana. Interestingly, these 117 colleges are spread across 10 districts in the state- Hyderabad (7 colleges), Rangareddy (8), Mahabubnagar (19), Nalgonda (10), Khammam (11), Warangal (13), Karimnagar (16), Adilabad (9), Nizamabad (10), and Medak (14).

This also shows that after 2014, efforts to set up new colleges in districts were inadequate. Only Medchal Malkajgiri, Vikarabad, and Komaram Bheem Asifabad got new government colleges.

According to this data, the government spent Rs.42,304.13 lakhs in 2021-22 (till 28 February 2022). This is less than what it spent in 2020-21, around Rs.47,930 lakhs. Similarly from 2014-22, in some of the years, the expenditure has been less compared to previous years, like in 2017-18, it was 40,597.24 lakhs and in 2018-19, it reduced to Rs.36,567.29 lakhs. In 2019-20, the expenditure rose to Rs. 43,930 lakhs.

Infrastructural facilities

Another important data that was sought by Rajesh was the infrastructural facilities in the 129 government degree colleges in Telangana. Two of the colleges- GDC Maripeda in Mahabubabad and GDC Wardhannapet in Warangal are functioning on rental buildings, revealed the RTI response. According to this data, most of the government colleges are functioning in their buildings but some of them are still running in the buildings of various junior colleges.

"It was after seeing the various newspaper reports of the poor infrastructure that I wanted to know the condition of the government colleges in the state and the expenditure of the government to improve them," said Rajesh.

Rajesh alleged that the present government has made many promises during the 2014 and 2018 elections but those promises are not fulfilled on the ground.

"Government ignored the promises they made in the 2014 and 2018 elections manifesto like free education from KG to PG, for every district a new government engineering college, for every Mandal an intermediate and degree college. But still, classes are running in rented buildings in Wardhannapet and Maripeda government degree colleges. Many degree colleges are running in government junior college buildings. There is no proper infrastructure and staff for existing colleges but there is no limit for government promises," said Rajesh.