Hyderabad: TPCC president N. Uttam Kumar Reddy on Friday warned Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao against playing with the lives and careers of poor students in the state. He was speaking after launching a signature campaign at Shamshabad, seeking immediate clearance of fee reimbursement dues.
Mr Reddy said it was strange that the CM places Telangana among richest states in the country but hesitates to release just Rs 3,000 crore towards fee reimbursement dues.
“He is openly playing with the lives of poor and deserving students. While the poorest of poor parents gave highest education to their children during Congress rule due to universal fee reimbursement policy, the TRS government’s anti-student policy is forcing lakhs of students to discontinue their studies. This is criminal negligence and intolerable,” he said.
Mr Reddy said that Telangana state became a reality only due to the sacrifices and struggle of students. “KCR is suppressing students,” he alleged and reminded that that the CM had given a clear assurance in the Assembly in March that all pending fee reimbursement dues would be cleared and payments made monthly from April onwards.
“KCR has no value for his own words or any respect for the Assembly. He went back on his promise and did not clear a single rupee towards fee reimbursement dues,” the TPCC chief said.
He said managements of private colleges have represented to the Congress that 3,200 colleges in TS are on the verge of closure due to non-clearance of fee dues. He also said that about 2.5 lakh lecturers and other staff of these private colleges have not been paid salaries for the last six months.
The TPCC Chief said that NSUI and Youth Congress activists would collect filled-in application forms from students of all educational institutions across the state which would be forwarded to the CM and Governor seeking immediate clearance of fee reimbursement dues.
Further, these applications would be handed over AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi who will be visiting Hyderabad on December 2. Mr Gandhi would take up the issue with the President of India, Mr Reddy said.
