Harish slams Congress over delay in fee reimbursement worth `800 cr

Hyderabad: Senior BRS leader T Harish Rao on Sunday demanded the government to release Rs 800 crore pertaining to the fee reimbursement of the degree colleges and also take up the final year examinations of the degree colleges.

The BRS leader said that the government was paying bills worth rupees thousands of crores to big contractors, but they do not pay fee reimbursement of the students. The careless attitude shown by the Congress government has become a curse for students and their lives and education are at stake. “The lives of about six lakh students are pushed into darkness by the government by not paying Rs 800 crore fee reimbursement money. The pathetic situation is that the students are made to ask the government to conduct the degree examination. This is a testament to the government’s failure to govern,” said Harish Rao.

The BRS leader alleged that third-year students were losing their eligibility to write PGCET, LAWCET and other competitive exams due to not conducting the exams on time. The fact that the degree exams scheduled for April have not been conducted in the Kakatiya, Satavahana, Telangana, Mahatma Gandhi and Palamuru universities because of the inability of the government.

“We released a total of Rs 19,000 crore in fee reimbursement funds, an average of Rs 2,000 crore every year, during the nine and a half years of BRS rule but the Congress government has not released even 17 paise under fee reimbursement in 17 months,” said Rao, alleging it was clear that education was a farce among the priorities of this government. “We, on behalf of the BRS party, demand that the State government immediately release the pending fee reimbursement arrears, immediately conduct degree exams, and save the lives of students from darkness,” said Rao.