"Cong Govt. Tackling Reimbursement"

The fact that the TDP, Jaganmohan Reddy and some students' groups had taken the fee reimbursement issue to the streets was faulted by Congress spokesperson T Tulasi Reddy on Friday.

Taking exception to the Opposition's stand, he clarified that Rs. 2,969 crore was budgeted for fee reimbursements for the year 2010-2011.

For the current academic year, the government will release Rs. 2,566 crore towards fee reimbursement, Reddy said.

In AP, a total of 6 categories of beneficiaries have been brought under the fee reimbursement program as against 4 in the previous Telugu Desam Party regime, he claimed.

He wondered whether it was justified to accuse the ruling party of not attending to the poor students' fees problems.

During the TDP's rule only 6 lakh students had received reimbursements, as against nearly 25 lakhs now with an income ceiling of Rs. one lakh, he added. Earlier, the income ceiling was Rs. 33,500.

The Kiran Kumar Reddy government had taken care to include even the disabled, BC, EBC and Minorities along with SC and ST students, for the reimbursements, Tulasi Reddy stated.

The TDP chief Chandrababu Naidu's allegations that the government was misleading students were baseless, said Reddy.

He said tht Jaganmohan Reddy should know that it was his father who had paid Rs. 1,565 crore in 2008-2009 while in 2010-2011 so far Rs. 2,969 crore had been paid to poor students.

Courtesy: INN