Tough days lie ahead for nearly 25 lakh students from socially and economically weaker sections, who depend on the state government's fee reimbursement scheme and scholarships to pursue professional and higher education courses.
The government has allotted Rs 3,400 crore in the budget for fee reimbursement and scholarships for this year, but Rs 2,400 crore has gone into paying the arrears of the last academic year 2011-12. The social welfare department, which monitors the implementation of fee reimbursement and scholarships, says that unless the finance department releases another Rs 3,000 crore immediately, it will be difficult to pay the fees for students who take admissions this month.
The issue came to light during a review meeting conducted by finance minister Anam Ramanarayan Reddy. He was informed that there was a balance of only Rs 1,000 crore in the allotted budget for the scheme for this year. While the Eamcet admissions counselling for MBBS and BDS courses will commence from July 20, the engineering counselling is expected by July-end. Students eligible for the scheme do not have to pay the fees to the colleges after seat allotment in the counselling. The government will reimburse the fees on their behalf.
However, the college managements are planning to collect the fees from students initially and return the amount after the government reimburses them. They claim that they are not in a position to pay salaries for the staff and meet operational expenditure if the fees are not paid at the time of admissions. “If the government fails to reimburse at least 25 per cent of the fee amount at the time of admission, we will be forced to collect the fees from students,” asserted Nimmaturi Ramesh, general secretary,
Consortium of Engineering and Professional Colleges Management Associations of AP. But various BC, SC and ST associations fear that if the colleges insist on collecting the fees from students at the time of admissions, many students may have to cancel their admissions, as they cannot afford the fees.