39 pharmacy colleges blacklisted in Andhra Pradesh

The Pharmacy Council of India has blacklisted 39 pharmacy colleges in the state for admitting more than the permitted limit of 100 students. The colleges have admitted between 180 and 300 students when the limit is 100. No admissions will be allowed in these colleges for the ensuing 2012-13 academic year. The PCI has decided not to recognise the degrees awarded by these colleges. This puts at risk 5,000 students, who are now in their second and third years.

Dr B. Suresh, PCI chairman, will meet Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy on May 9 to submit the list of “blacklisted” colleges, which have violating the PCI norms, and urge him to  erecognise them by withdrawing university affiliation.  With this, the one-upmanship between the All India Council for Technical Education and the PCI over the control of pharmacy colleges has taken a new turn. The PCI’s contention is that the colleges have violated the Education Regulation Act, 1999 by admitting more students. However, the managements of these colleges claim that their intake has been approved by the AICTE, and that PCI’s diktat is unilateral and unjustified. The PCI contends that AICTE has given indiscriminate approval to increased student intake without first checking that the infrastructure and faculty in these colleges are adequate.