Fee reimbursement based on nativity

T govt to reimburse fees of T students studying in AP and vice versa

• 39,000 AP students are studying in Telangana; 18,000 Telangana students in AP
• The nativity of students being examined

Hyderabad: The all-party meeting chaired by Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao has decided that the Telangana government will bear the burden of fee reimbursement of students belonging to T State only. It would be the responsibility of the Andhra Pradesh government to reimburse the fee in case of students from that state.

The argument put forward by the Telangana government was that they should continue with the policy that was there during the undivided Andhra Pradesh. At that time if a student from AP was studying in Karnataka, the AP government used to bear the burden of fee reimbursement. Now that the state has been bifurcated, the Andhra Pradesh government should bear the expenditure for Andhra students studying in Telangana.

According to preliminary calculations, there are about 39000 Andhra students studying in Telangana state while around 18000 Telangana students are studying in Andhra state. It is estimated that the burden on Andhra Pradesh government now would be around Rs 196 crore while the Telangana government would have to pay over Rs 50 crore to Andhra Pradesh.

However, the T government decided that it will go ahead with the scheme and will not change any guidelines that have so far been followed. According to Minister for Education G Jagdeeswar Reddy, the government has asked the officials to prepare a detailed report identifying as to who belongs to Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

The criteria to be followed to decide as to who was local and non-local after carefully examining the certificates and other related documents.

According to the Minister, it was decided that any student who had studied from class ninth to intermediate and joined degree in Telangana will be considered to be a native of Telangana. They will meet again after the officials submit a detailed report on the nativity of the students.

According to officials, the government had paid Rs 4,500 crore as fees reimbursements for 15 lakh students in the undivided State. Students hailing from SC, ST, BC and minority communities were extended this benefit for pursuing intermediate or engineering/medicine or various PG courses.

The meeting was chaired by Telangana Chief Minister Chandrasekhar Rao and was attended by Dy chief ministers T Rajaiah, Mahmud Ali, ministers G Jagadeeshwar Reddy, Etela Rajender, Dr J Geetha Reddy (Congress), Bandaru Dattatreya (BJP), P Sudhaker Reddy, K Swamy Goud, V Srinivas Goud (TRS), R Krishnaiah (TDP) and Syed Amin Jaffri (MIM) besides senior officials of the education department.