The Telangana Minorities Residential Educational Institutions Society (TMREIS) was established to set up and manage schools and colleges for students from minority communities in the State.
While the ambitious project began with 71 schools in 2016-17, in about five years, the number rose to more than two-fold with 204 schools and junior colleges.
A brainchild of Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, TMREIS manages as many as 97 schools for girls. Approximately, a lakh students are studying at the schools, out of which 49,440 are girls. The school primarily caters to students belonging to the lesser privileged sections of the society.
“Most of the students we have here belong to the weaker sections of minority communities. We are doing our best to give them quality education, and accommodation. All our schools will now have a junior college attached to them. As students are being promoted each year, the need for junior colleges has risen,” a staffer, who did not wish to be identified, said.
With the orphanage Anees-ul-Ghurba being redeveloped, TMREIS sources said that more than two dozen inmates have been moved to one of their schools. “Our senior management wanted them to have good education and a good future. They are accommodated at one of the schools within the city limits and are being looked after well,” the source said.
However, in the recent past, TMREIS has found itself surrounded in controversy. While the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), acting upon certain complaints of alleged corruption, met the staff, former State Minorities Commission chief Abid Rasool Khan filed a writ petition in the High Court stating that TMREIS has not paid rent amounting to several lakhs. His charitable trust houses one of TMREIS’ schools.