Earlier the demand for starting minority colleges was huge.Many non-minority institutions too started such colleges by submitting fake religion certificates."  Vijay Kumar Prinicipal of an engineering college.

Minority colleges used to have a good time until a few years ago.It was the indiscriminate sanctioning of new colleges by AICTE which spoiled their show.  The number of engineering colleges in the state has now increased to 640, MBA colleges to 700 and MCA colleges to 600.

"Earlier the demand for starting minority colleges was huge,"  said Mr Vijay Kumar, principal of an engineering college.  "Many non-minority institutions too started minority colleges by submitting fake religion certificates of its members.

"Some even went to the extent of starting Marathi and Gujarati institutions which also enjoyed minority status."  It was the government's non-interference in their admissions process and fee structure which led to the sprouting of colleges.

"The managements were allowed to fill up to 70 per cent of the seats as per their choice," said Mr Maheshwar Reddy, chairman of Maheshwara Group of institutions.  "There were no specific guidelines on merit and fee structure."  During their heydays, colleges charged between Rs 10 lakh to Rs 20 lakh as donation depending on the craze for the course.  "Now the situation has totally changed with the advent of hundreds of new engineering colleges.  The AICTE has permitted about 350 colleges just two years.

Several minority colleges are surrendering their minority status to secure admissions in government quota.  While there were about 40 Christian professional colleges earlier, the number has come down to 10 now.  In the same way, the Muslim professional colleges came down from 125 to 108.