Only Telangana students will get fee reimbursement

Hyderabad : The Telangana government decided to continue the existing tuition fee reimbursement scheme to students without any dilution for the present academic year 2014-15 and also pay arrears.

Students belonging to Telangana State would only be covered under the fee reimbursement scheme whereas students belonging to Andhra Pradesh would not be eligible.

The decision was taken during an all-party meeting held at Secretariat under the chairmanship of Chief Minister of K Chandrasekhar Rao.

Revealing details of the scheme, Education Minister G Jagadeeshwar Reddy said that the State government would reimburse the fees of students belonging to Telangana State irrespective of their place of study.

He added that students belonging to Andhra Pradesh State would have to approach their government to avail of the benefits of the scheme.

The minister said that arrears of fee reimbursement should be mutually borne by the respective State governments. As per official figures, the Telangana State government would incur a financial burden of Rs 2,696 crore to implement the scheme for Telangana students.

'Official statistics show that the State is incurring Rs 2,500 crore burden for students studying in Telangana State. The remaining Rs 196 crore would be spent for Telangana students studying in other States, including AP,' he said.

The State government would frame modalities of implementing the scheme in the next couple of days. 'We have asked officials to prepare a list of students who belong to Telangana and other States,' he said.

Others present at the meeting included Deputy Chief Ministers T Rajaiah and Mahmood Ali, ministers T Harish Rao and Etela Rajender, D Srinivas and J Geetha Reddy (Congress), Lakshman (BJP), P Sudhakar Reddy, K Swamy Goud, V Srinivas Goud (TRS), R Krishnaiah (TDP) and Syed Ameen Jaffri (MIM) besides senior officials of the education department.

Congress Floor Leader in Telangana Legislative Council D Srinivas appreciated the government's decision and said that it would surely help the students.

BJP leader K Laxman suggested that the state government should not stop this scheme at any cost and should sort out issues by discussing with A P Government.

He also said that the present system of fee reimbursement had several glitches and there must be a new and refined system for this purpose. TDP leader R Krishnaiah hailed the decision and said that it would reflect the policy of the Union government.

According to the policy of the Centre, the fee reimbursement should be paid by the respective State governments. The government has paid Rs 4,500 crore towards fees reimbursement for 15 lakh students in the erstwhile undivided State.

Students hailing from SC, ST, BC and minority communities were extended this benefit for pursuing intermediate, engineering, medicine and various other PG courses.