Date:30/07/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/07/30/stories/2007073060380800.htm

Andhra Pradesh

‘Telangana being given undue importance’

Staff Reporter

VIJAYAWADA: The Jai Andhra Udyama Samithi floated by the Bharatiya Janata Party to campaign for separate Andhra has alleged that Telangana region has been given undue importance in higher education.

Addressing a press conference here on Sunday, its State committee member Uppalapati Srinivasaraju said that the Government had given permissions to more number of colleges for engineering, medical, MBA and MCA courses in the Telangana region as compared to any other region.

There were 537 colleges in Telangana as compared to 311 in coastal Andhra and 96 in Rayalaseema, he added.

Mr. Srinivasaraju said the Telangana region had 151 colleges for engineering, 13 for medicine, 168 for MBA and 205 for MCA, while coastal districts had only 80 colleges for engineering, 13 for medicine, 84 for MBA and 134 for MCA.

These statistics were clear indications of the “real backwardness” of coastal districts in education, he said.

Samithi State committee member L.R.K. Prasad said BJP national executive member and former MLA Kambhampati Hari Babu will inaugurate the new samithi office here at Deendayal Bhavan in Suryaraopeta on Monday at 11 a.m