Hyderabad: Apart from the pending fee reimbursements of Junior, Degree, PG and Engineering colleges, the Telangana state government is yet to give scholarships to eligible students. Many deserving students in these colleges have not received their scholarships for the academic years 2016-2017 and 2017-2018. The students are unable to buy books or renew their bus passes and are forced to pay the fees on their own. The Telangana government has to pay nearly Rs 11.5 crore in scholarships to students.
The students have to pay Rs 5,000 per annum as collective fees to the colleges for their pockets. Dues for private colleges are pending for the last four years. Mr Gouri Satish, Honorary President, Telangana Junior Private Colleges, said, “Students who are eligible for scholarships are facing a lot of trouble because of the delayed scholarships. They are unable to renew their bus passes as they are out of pocket money. As the scholarships are delayed they are forced to pay Rs 5,000 per annum from their pockets. We demand that the government release the scholarships and fee reimbursements as soon as possible because we are also suffering like the students. We are unable to pay salaries to our employees. How will we run our colleges if the government ends up delaying fee reimbursements, as has been the case for last few years.”
Mr Ramana Reddy, President, Telangana Degree and PG College Association, said, “A high level meeting was conducted with deputy chief minister and education minister Kadiyam Srihari on August 9 where all problems faced by colleges were addressed by the minister, including scholarships.”
“About Rs 1,700 crore payment is pending and the government has promised to pay Rs 250 crore every week. We have demanded that the government pay all dues by this month end. Otherwise we will be burdened as the new academic year has already started,” Mr Reddy added. Mr T. Papi Reddy, Chairman, Telangana State Council of Higher Education (TSCHE), said, “The state government conducted a high level meeting to discuss all these issues and they discussed the fee reimbursement and scholarship issues with the college managements.”
