Congress takes up cudgels for students 

FEE REIMBURSEMENT ROW

Hyderabad: In a strongly-worded speech, TPCC president N Uttam Kumar Reddy has warned Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao against playing with the lives and careers of poor students in the State. He was speaking after launching the signature campaign seeking immediate clearance of fee reimbursement dues, at Shamshabad on Friday. The meeting, organised by National Students Union of India (NSUI) and Youth Congress, was attended by nearly 10,000 students.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said it was strange that the Chief Minister placed Telangana among richest States in the country and also introduced a budget of Rs 1.30 lakh crore for the year 2016-17, but he hesitated 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 regime 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 highly intolerable,” he said.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said that the Telangana State became a reality only due to the sacrifices and struggle of students. However, he alleged that KCR was suppressing the students and playing with the lives and careers of over 14 lakh students by stopping fee reimbursement payments. He reminded that that the Chief Minister had given a clear assurance in the State Legislative Assembly in March this year that all pending dues of fee reimbursement would be cleared and the monthly payments would be made from April onwards.

“KCR has no value for his own words or any respect towards Assembly. He went back on his promise and did not clear a single rupee towards fee reimbursement dues,” he said. The TPCC president said managements of private intermediate, degree, PG, engineering, pharmacy, management and other colleges had represented to the Congress party that 3,200 private colleges in the State were on the verge of closure due to non-clearance of fee reimbursement dues.

He also said that about 2.5 lakh lecturers and other staff of these private colleges had not been paid salaries for the last six months. The TPCC Chief said that the NSUI and Youth Congress activists would collect filled in “Application Forms” from students of all educational institutions across Telangana State and the same would be forwarded to the Chief Minister and Governor seeking immediate clearance of fee reimbursement dues.

Further, he said these applications would be handed over to AICC Vice-President Rahul Gandhi, who is visiting Hyderabad on December 2, and he would take up the issue with the President of India. AICC secretary in-charge of the Congress party affairs in the State RC Kuntia said the Telangana State was carved out with the support of the student force. KCR would pay price in case he under-estimated the power of the students, he warned.

Former Minister DK Aruna alleged that the TRS government was adopting “suppressive” attitude towards students, who were questioning the government on fees reimbursement scheme.