Congress asks TRS Govt to clear dues

Hyderabad, Oct 8 (INN): Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) President N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Saturday demanded that the State Government immediately clear the fee reimbursement dues of all private colleges in Telangana State.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the State Government did not clear accumulated dues of Rs. 2,140 Crores for the academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16. Due to non-release of payments 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.

The TPCC chief said that Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao had promised on the floor of the Legislative Assembly that the State Government would release the fee reimbursement dues of Rs. 3,068 Crore for the years 2014-15 and 2015-16 by April 30 this year. 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 and also promised to release tuition fee bimonthly from this academic year (2016-17). So far, only Rs. 928 crores were released in the month of May and tokens were issued for Rs. 278 crores. But the treasury kept the amount in freezing since June 6. Therefore, dues of Rs. 2140 crores are pending for last two academic years 2014-15 and 2015-16. Although the academic year 2016-17 has begun about four months ago, the State Government appears in no mood to release the dues corresponding to last two years, he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that by not clearing fee reimbursement dues, the State Government has put the careers of nearly 14 lakh students in Telangana at stake. This will have a huge impact on the quality of education. He demanded that the Chief Minister honour his words by ensuring immediate clearance of fee reimbursement dues.

Speaking about districts' reorganisation, Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the entire process was being carried out in completely unscientific manner. He said there was no uniformity among new districts. While one district has 5 lakh population, another has 40 lakh population. He said that the State Government should have convened the Assembly session to discuss and finalise the reorganisation of districts.

The TPCC chief also condemned the Chief Minister for ignoring agriculture sector and said rain-hit farmers were not extended any relief so far. He said that the estimation of crop losses was done in a haphazard and erroneous manner. He said that the Congress party was on the job of enumerating exact losses to the agriculture sector and the same would be forwarded to authorities for immediate action.

Leader of Opposition in Legislative Council Mohammed Ali Shabbir slammed the Chief Minister for not conducting the second all-party meeting on districts reorganisation. He said there was still no clarity on the exact of number of new districts. He that the State Government was not functioning in a democratic manner and the Chief Minister was imposing unilateral decisions. With regard to BC Commission, he said that the TRS Government has wasted almost two years in the name of Sudhir Commission to delay 12% Muslim reservation. Now it wants to buy more time on the pretext of BC Commission.

MLC Ponguleti Sudhakar Reddy, TPCC Vice-President Dr. Mallu Ravi and other leaders were also present.