Students blame T-stir for their absence About 2,500 students in 295 affiliated engineering colleges of JNTU-Hyderabad have been detained for lack of sufficient attendance.These students, who are pursuing the first semester of the second, third and final year of their B.Tech course and are scheduled to appear for the first semester exams from December 1, won’t be promoted to the next semester, thus losing an academic year.

JNTU norms say the students must have 75 percent attendance to be eligible to appear for the exams. A 10 percent concession is allowed on medical grounds, but students with less than 65 percent attendance are barred from taking the exams. The detained students have blamed the 25-day RTC strike for their absence from college. However, JNTU officials dismissed the claims that their absence was due to the Sakala Janula Samme.

“If that was the reason, the number of detained students should be higher as the closure of colleges affects all the students. Out of 2.3 lakh students appearing for exams, only about 2,500 students were detained,” said Prof. G.K. Viswanath, Director Academic Planning, JNTU. College managements, students and parents are pressurising the JNTU officials to allow the detained students to take the exams. It pays to adhere to attendance norms JNTU says number of detainees is coming down every year due to strict rules. 4,000 students were detained in 2008, 2,800 in 2009, 2,600 in 2010 and in 2011 it was only 2,500!