Hyderabad, August 01: Communist Party of India state secretary K Narayana on Sunday appealed to Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy to take immediate steps for protecting the interests of 2,000 students, who are pursuing their studies in University of Northern Virginia at Annandale(UNVA), which is being investigated for alleged visa fraud.
Releasing a copy of his letter to the media at Makhdoom Bhavan, Himayathnagar, Mr Narayana said the raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) department and Federal Bureau of Investigation have endangered the future of a large number of students from the state, who are enrolled in various courses.
He said that the visa-fraud charges levied against the UNVA was reminiscent of similar incident of the Tri-Valley University in California in January.
Mr Narayana appealed to the Chief Minister to use his Office to mount pressure on Centre to depute a Cabinet Minister to personally take stock of situation.
The CPI leader added that the Central government should take steps to continue students pursue their studies and improve the confidence of anxious parents.
Meanwhile, Special Secretary (Protocol) in the state government and in-charge of the NRI cell, N V Ramana Reddy stated “We have not been contacted by any concerned party. We will look into the matter when we receive complaints.”
It may be recalled that both the UNVA and Tri-Valley University in California were accused of fraudulent practices in an investigative report carried by the US-based Chronicle of Higher Education, on private unaccredited universities exploiting visa loopholes to make money by cheating foreign students.
The UNVA, based in a suburb of Washington, Annandale, has about 2,400 students. Of these, an overwhelming number, around 90 per cent are Indian and an overwhelming majority of them are from Andhra Pradesh.
——–Agencies