The Supreme Court on Monday directed the Andhra Pradesh government to submit details of the steps being taken to release the arrears of fee reimbursements for underprivileged students of private engineering colleges, and adjourned further hearing on the case for one week.
The Apex Court's directives came after the state government stated that it had cleared the tuition fee arrears of all engineering colleges in coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions as per the court's directives.
However, the government told the court that the clearing of fee arrears in Telangana region was delayed as the government employees were abstaining from work due to the non-cooperation agitation in support of the separate statehood demand.
Following the government's reply, the Apex Court directed that the government must provide complete details by Friday on the payments released and postponed further hearings for a week.
Earlier on February 14th, the Supreme Court had directed the Andhra Pradesh government to release fee reimbursement dues and give reasons for the delay in clearing the arrears due.
The Apex Court had taken a serious note of the failure of the state to clear the arrears amounting to Rs. 3,400 crores before the deadline, and had rejected the government's petition seeking another 3 months extension for clearing dues.
The court had slammed the state government and had observed, "The government is not acting in a responsible manner and playing games with students' careers. The government is simply shifting its responsibility on college managements. Why should managements take loans from banks when the fault lies with the state government?"