[1]Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy along with finance minister Anam Ramanarayan Reddy on Thursday reviewed the fee hike issue in engineering colleges with officials of the higher education, technical education and social welfare departments. Officials explained to the Chief Minister that the fees would increase from 40 to 150 per cent in 133 colleges that had submitted financial statements to the AFRC. However, a decision on the quantum of fee hike in the other 107 colleges, which had submitted “insufficient details”, and the remaining 450 colleges, which had failed to submit any details, was yet to be decided by the AFRC. However, these colleges are demanding a common fee of Rs 50,200, a steep hike from the existing Rs 31,000.
The Chief Minister apparently made it clear that he could not take a decision on the fee hike issue in a haste, since it involved heavy financial implications for the state’s budget. He asked the officials to refer the issue to the GoM to advise the government on a future course of action. The government has been struggling to reimburse the existing fee of Rs 31,000 per student for the last three years, which imposed a financial burden of Rs 2,500 crore annually. If the fee is increased to Rs 50,200, the burden will nearly double.
The officials are proposing to fix a cap of Rs 31,000 on the fee reimbursement amount and any hike over this has to be borne by the students. However, this may invite the wrath of students, parents and Opposition parties. The government is also worried about the “political implications” it might have to face ahead of the 2014 general elections, if only partial fees are reimbursed.
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