JOIN USStudents on reverse migration in Andhra Pradesh
These are students who have moved away to coastal and other non-Telangana regions to study, in view of the agitation for the creation of a Telengana state. The agitation has posed a threat to the continuity of their study. In normal circumstances, a large number of students would be leaving Hyderabad region to travel home for the festival.
“It is a case of reverse migration,” says Devineni Umamaheswara Rao, a TDP legislator from Mylavaram, Krishna District. According to him even Telangana Samrakshana Rastra Samiti president K Chandrasekhara Rao’s son studied in Guntur, away from Telangana.
Confirming the trend, a senior officer in the Board of Intermediate Education said many corporate colleges were receiving requests from parents in the Telangana area to shift their wards to educational hubs in the coastal Andhra regions like Guntur, Vijayawada and Nellore. Such colleges had now started an expansion drive in the coastal regions.
Most students are from Warangal, Karimnagar, Medak, Adilabad, Nizamabad and Mahaboobnagar. Interestingly, T Bhargava Reddy and J Varun, who secured eighth and ninth ranks respectively in IIT-JEE of 2011, are from Telangana but they have pursued their studies in the colleges in Vijayawada.
“If Telangana leaders are really worried about a state, they should see that the students of the region are not deprived of education.If bandhs are observed then students will be at a loss. Moreover, non-Telangana students score over Telangana students.
“Protests and agitations should be conducted in a peaceful way as Anna Hazare’s,” said Intermediate student V G Deshpande of Warasiguda.
A few students who have decided to stay back in Hyderabad and complete Intermediate are now worried that they are pitted against a ‘coastally’ groomed competitor.
“At the Viswabharathi International School in Vuyyur alone, more than 500 students from Telangana enrolled at any given time,” said Kota Madhusudan Sharma of Siddhartha College in Vijayawada. Principals of leading corporate residential colleges in coastal Andhra said there had been a 25 per cent increase in the number of students from Telangana.
“Students who are getting admission to engineering course are opting for the Andhra region as their first choice,” said a principal belonging to the Sri Chaitanya Group of Institutions.
Coastal Andhra colleges which wished to remain unmaned fearing attacks in Telangana, admitted that political uncertainty was contributing to the increasing migration of students from the Telangana region. Students from Telangana studying in Andhra feel safe.