Hyderabad: The managements of private higher education colleges in Telangana called off their indefinite strike on Monday after the talks between the Federation of Associations of Telangana Higher Education Institutions (FATHI) and the state government ended on fruitful note. The colleges will reopen on Tuesday.

Briefing the media after a four-hour long meeting between the government and the association representatives, Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka announced that Rs 600 crore dues will be released immediately before Dasara festival and the remaining Rs 600 crore will be cleared in installments every month.

“It was the Congress government which first brought the fee reimbursement scheme. For us, the future of students is paramount. We decided to release Rs 600 crore immediately towards fee reimbursement. The remaining amount will be cleared soon,” the Minister said.

Thanking the college managements for withdrawing their stir, the Deputy Chief Minister said the government will also constitute a committee involving state government officials and private college managements to find a permanent solution to the payment of the fee reimbursement dues in the future. Chief Secretary K Ramakrishna Rao has been asked to finalise the formation of the committee in two or three days. The scheme will be rationalized based on the recommendations of the committee in the future, he said.

“Our government is implementing the fee reimbursement scheme in true spirit. The previous BRS government destroyed the system of fee reimbursement scheme. As a result, the dues were accumulated and put heavy burden on the state which was already reeling under financial crisis,” Bhatti said, adding that the people’s government gave top priority to the fee reimbursement and students career since the middle class, poor and weaker sections were availing the benefit of the scheme.

Earlier, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy held a meeting with the Deputy CM and IT Minister D Sridhar Babu and instructed the two ministers to resolve the issue amicably by holding talks with the college managements.