The sharp cut in the number of engineering seats in Telangana has now forced many faculty members to resign or give away their teaching positions, reported The Economic Times.
According to the report, over 70 per cent of these seats have been reduced in the last four years, which has led to layoffs and pay cuts for these academicians with years of experience.
According to a Times of India report, these faculty members have now been forced to work as delivery executives or street vendors to earn their livelihood.
The rising popularity of emergent fields such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), data science, and cybersecurity has led many of the state's 175 BTech colleges to reduce their core engineering seat capacity by 50 to 75 per cent.
The report further stated that core engineering branches such as Civil and Mechanical engineering offer only about 7,458 seats combined.
Other electrical and electronics branches provide only a mere 4,751 seats.
Presently in Telangana, there are a total of 86,943 seats, out of which, 61,857 are allotted to branches of Computer Science and other related fields.
According to the Times of India report, these teachers are now in a dilemma, as many colleges are altogether eliminating the Mechanical Engineering programme, and while such decisions are being carried out, these academicians are forced to take up additional jobs of a delivery person or cabbie
