Hyderabad: Andhra Pradesh Cabinet ministers have been assuring ‘Andhra’ students in Telangana that the AP government would reimburse their fees but no step has been taken in that direction.
Moreover, it seems highly unlikely now that these 40,000 students will be helped by the government, with admissions already done with and very little chance of another phase of counselling. Both governments had made it clear that they will only pay for their own students.
While Telangana government introduced the FAST scheme eliminating students whose families weren't in Telangana prior to 1956 from eligibility, Andhra Pradesh government issued a memo that they will pay only for students local to the state as per the Presidential Order.
As a result, nearly 40,000 students, who are local to Telangana according to the Presidential Order but had migrated in the last two decades have been left in the lurch. And now there is hardly any possibility that the Andhra Pradesh government will come to their rescue though Social Welfare minister Ravela Kishore Babu and HRD minister Ganta Srinivasa Rao had stated that the government would pay for all these students. While issuing the memo, a top government official said that they would issue further directions to these students after Telangana government decides on the guidelines for FAST.
"But the admission process is almost over now. There is very little hope that the Supreme Court will agree to a second phase of counselling. Students have already begun attending classes. Those who were not eligible for FAST in Telangana didn't apply for engineering. Even if they somehow pay their fees, there is no guarantee they will be covered under fee reimbursement," a senior official said.
