HYDERABAD: Worried parents in the city who called up the helpline, 23220603, on Sunday were left a frustrated lot. The CMO had opened the helpline to provide information to parents and relatives of students stuck in the US, but on Sunday nobody answered their calls.
As a major chunk of the scammed students are from AP, Tana and some human rights groups urged chief minister Kiran Kumar Reddy to speak directly to the US consulate officials in the city. Organisations led by human rights activist U Sudhakar, submitted a petition to Reddy asking him to talk to the Centre on the issue and ensure that the students are released.
Meanwhile, increasing parents’ concern, several students who were in touch with them till Saturday morning, were not reachable from Saturday night.
Several ‘agencies’ in Hyderabad that sent students to Tri-Valley University have hurriedly relocated their offices for fear of being tracked down. Department of higher education has now decided to scan thoroughly the details of foreign universities which come to the state for recruiting students.
Ironically, several parents discovered too late that their wards had taken admission in the sham varsity.
“We were under the impression that our boy was in another university in California. We did not know that he had taken admission in Tri Valley just two months back. We are worried now,” said a parent.
According to a student from Hyderabad, Srikanth Bachuu, several of them came to know of the fraud just weeks before the university shut down. “Most students had taken transfers from other universities in California to Tri Valley. Tri Valley offers studies at lower tuition fee and online courses with curricular practical training (CPT) from the very first day,” said Bachuu who had taken transfer from another university to Tri-Valley for his PG course. He said he had graduated from the university in December and was currently working.
Students said that several of them are currently paying through their nose to fight charges levelled against them. “The lawyers fighting the case take $1,200 to $1,500 per consultation and many students cannot afford to fight for long,” said a student.
Students are now left with 2 options __ either to pay a bond of $15,000 to an immigration magistrate to get rid of the tracking tags and return to India or get immigration papers settled and opt for another US varsity, a relative of a student informed TOI.
Source : TOI