Clear Fee Reimbursement Dues: Telangana Congress

Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday demanded that the State government clear the tuition fee dues, as per guidelines, in colleges across Telangana under the fee reimbursement scheme.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the State Government had not cleared dues of Rs. 2,140 crores for the academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16 that got accumulated. Due to this, several private colleges were pushed to the brink of bankruptcy, he claimed. Private colleges were unable to pay salaries for nearly 2.5 lakh employees for the past three months.

The TPCC chief said that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, during the Legislative Assembly, had promised that the State government would release dues worth Rs. 3,068 crores for the two academic years by April 30, 2016. On May 24, in a meeting with private college managements, the Chief Minister announced that the government would release the tuition fee arrears by June 30 on a bi-monthly basis.

Reddy said that So far, only Rs. 928 crores were released in the month of May and tokens were issued for Rs. 278 crores. But the treasury froze the amount on June 6 and hasn't released it yet. Due to this, dues worth Rs. 2,140 crores are now pending release since the last two academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that by not clearing fee reimbursement dues, the State government risked the careers of nearly 14 lakh students in Telangana. This would have a huge impact on the quality of education.