Telangana Congress today demanded that the state government immediately clear the tuition fee reimbursement dues of all private colleges.
State Congress chief N Uttam Kumar Reddy alleged that the TRS government had not cleared accumulated dues of Rs 2,140 crore for the academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16.
"Due to non-release of funds for the last two years, all the private colleges were pushed to the brink of bankruptcy. The private colleges were unable to pay salaries for nearly 2.5 lakh employees for the last three months. Consequently, about 2.5 lakh families will not be able to celebrate Dassera this year," he said.
Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao had promised in the Assembly that government would release dues of Rs 3,068 crore for 2014-15 and 2015-16 byApril 30 this year, he said.
"OnMay 24, in a meeting with private college managements, CM announced that the government would release the tuition fee arrears byJune 30and also promised to release tuition fee bimonthly from this academic year.
"So far, only Rs 928 crore were released in May and tokens were issued for Rs 278 crore. But the treasury kept the amount in freezing sinceJune 6. Therefore, dues of Rs 2,140 crore are pending for last two academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16," Reddy said.
"Although the academic year 2016-17 has begun about four months ago, the state Government appears in no mood to release the dues of the last two years," he said.
The Congress leader alleged that by not clearing the dues, the government had put the careers of nearly 14 lakh students in Telangana at stake.
"This will have a huge impact on the quality of education. We demand that the Chief Minister honour his words by ensuring immediate clearance of dues," he said.
The fees reimbursement scheme is aimed at enabling students from disadvantaged sections to pursue higher education.
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