Amaravati, Aug 4 (IANS): The Andhra Pradesh Board of Intermediate Education (BIE) on Wednesday directed all the junior colleges which illegally collected fees for unapproved offline admissions for academic year 2021-22 to return the money to the students.

"The college managements are directed to repay the fee collected from the students immediately," Board Secretary V. Ramakrishna said, warning that the colleges admitting students illegally through offline mode will face action, including disaffiliation.

He said it has come to the notice of the board that certain college managements and principals are making illegal admissions and that these will not be approved.

"The board is introducing online admissions from the academic year 2021-22. It is known that some of the students have already taken admissions into some colleges and also paid the college fee even before the release of notification for online admission process," he noted.

Ramakrishna said the board is not responsible for the students who have already taken these illegal admissions and paid the college fee.

He ordered the RIOs across the state to identify the erring colleges.

"All the RIOs in the state are hereby informed to identify such colleges who are doing illegal admissions before announcement of the online admission notification. If any college is noticed making illegal admissions, necessary action may be initiated as per the applicable rules including disaffiliation," he said.

Aiming at wiping out the decades-long widespread abuse and indiscriminate commercialisation of intermediate education in the state, the board introduced only online admissions from this academic year.

On Wednesday, Ramakrishna, a senior Indian Revenue Service (IRS) officer, held a Zoom meeting with all the stakeholders of intermediate education in the 13 districts, including a few parents, to allay their fears and clarify many of their doubts about online mode of admissions.