Telangana locals set to get majority seats in higher education institutions

The high-level committee, which was constituted by the State government to determine the local and non-local criteria, has decided 95 per cent of seats reservation for Telangana locals

Hyderabad: Telangana local students are set to get a majority of seats in the higher education institutions, particularly the engineering, medical and pharmacy colleges, in the State from the forthcoming next academic year.

The high-level committee, which was constituted by the State government to determine the local and non-local criteria, has decided 95 per cent of seats reservation for Telangana locals.

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The remaining five percent of the seats will be reserved for non-State students who are children of Telangana employees, spouses of employees and Telangana locals residing outside the State.

Students of other States, including from Andhra Pradesh, will be provided opportunity under the national integration quota on a supernumerary basis to the tune of 10 percent of the total seats.

So far, as per the Article -371D, 85 per cent of the seats in the HEIs in the State are reserved for Osmania University area (Telangana) locals and the remaining i.e., 15 per cent is open for all, allowing students from Telangana and Andhra Pradesh compete for a seat in the 15 per cent quota. This common admission process norm has been followed by Andhra Pradesh as well.

The AP Reorganisation Act 2014, during the bifurcation of erstwhile AP state, had mandated the continuation of this common admission process for a period of 10 years starting 2014. The 10-year common admission period ceases to be operational this year.

This prompted the State government to constitute a committee – TGCHE Chairman Prof. V Balakista Reddy, Commissioner of Technical and Collegiate Education A Sridevasena and School Education Director EV Narasimha Reddy – for formulating new norms for admissions to HEIs in the State.