TRS legislators pitch for reservations in gurukuls

HYDERABAD: Several TRS members are seeking legislators’ quota in government residential schools on the lines of MPs having a similar quota for admission of students into Kendra Vidyalayas. With the gurukuls producing impressive results, members said that there is a lot of pressure on them from the people of their respective constituencies, seeking admission into these SC, ST, BC, and minority residential institutions.
Presently, admission into these schools is provided on the basis of qualifying marks secured by the students in the entrance test.
Lauding the standards maintained by these residential schools, most of which were established by the TRS government, the ruling party members G Kishore Kumar, Shakeel Mohammed, Athram Sakku, Anjaiah, Sandra Venkata Veeraiah, D Vinay Bhaskar among others wanted the government to fix a certain quota of seats for the legislators. The members also urged the government to construct its own buildings for these schools as Rs 175 crore is being spent towards payment of rent every year.
They also requested that assembly constituency should be taken as the local criteria against the undivided district for admission into these schools. Welfare minister Koppula Eshwar said the government would look into their demands.
Meanwhile, MIM floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi said that the state government should consider the construction of these school buildings or setting up of these institutions on Waqf properties by evicting squatters.
Minister Eshwar said there are a total of 970 residential schools including 603 established by the TRS government. Over 4.31 lakh students belonging to SCs, STs, BCs. minorities and EBCs are pursuing their education from these institutes and the state government is spending over Rs 57,000 on an average per student.
Though the government is already trying to honour all the recommendation letters from MLAs for admission into the residential schools, the minister said that he will look into the issue of fixing a quota for the legislators. “Depending upon the availability of funds, own buildings for these schools would also be constructed,” he added.