Andhranews

Though Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy has sought to sweeten his ‘Dasara gift’ with regional flavour, the political overtones behind the announcement of a university, a medical college and an engineering college under the government sector for Telangana cannot be ignored. In a game of one-upmanship with Telangana Rashtra Samiti (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao, who has fallen out with the Congress-led UPA over the Statehood issue, Dr Reddy apparently wants to deflect the TRS offensive in the run-up to Lok Sabha byelection in Karimnagar by playing the developmental card. For the first time, the Chief Minister talked about “60:40” ratio between coastal Andhra/Rayalaseema versus Telangana region in the matter of educational facilities.

Hence, one more university has been sanctioned at Nalgonda, in addition to Telangana University established at Nizamabad earlier this year. Adilabad will get its first medical college and Karimnagar will get a constituent engineering college of Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University. With these changes, Osmania University’s jurisdiction will be confined to Hyderabad and Ranga Reddy districts.

The eight other Telangana districts are covered by three universities. But how effective these efforts can be to remove the regional imbalances and reduce the burden on existing universities is yet to be seen. The ruling Congress claims that Telangana has 25 out of 38 university-level institutions, 162 out of 276 engineering colleges and 20 out of 35 medical colleges in the State. New colleges and universities will take time to establish their reputation.

Osmania University, the oldest in the State, is known the world over. But OU’s name got a beating in the wake of Telangana agitation in 1969-71 and it took a decade for it to regain its reputation. Kakatiya University, established at Warangal in 1976, is yet to make its mark in international academic circles.

Similarly, JNTU and NTR University of Health Sciences are struggling to get worldwide recognition. In this backdrop, it is anybody’s guess what reputation the new universities will have. Political circles wonder whether it is part of Dr Reddy’s plan to turn Hyderabad into a Union Territory and restrict Osmania University’s jurisdiction to this entity.