Fee row: Pvt colleges to go ahead with strike

HYDERABAD: The standoff between engineering colleges and the state government on the fee reimbursement issue is likely to continue for long. The private college managements have stated that they will go ahead with the proposed strike from February 16 if the government fails to release the entire fee arrears immediately.

The colleges also have also refused to take bank loans on the government’s counter guarantee. They stated that they were not ready to pay interest to banks.

Ramesh Nimmatoori, an official of a college, said that most colleges now want the government to pay up the money as soon as possible. “At a meeting held on Monday, majority of the representatives of the colleges stated that with the Supreme Court directing the government to submit an affidavit within one week, they will not agree to any proposal to wait for over three months,” said Nimmatoori.

With the apex court order favouring them, the colleges have put forth another proposal. “The government will have to allot Rs 7,000 crore for the fee reimbursement scheme in the coming budget as against the proposed Rs 4,000 crore,” said Nimmatoori.

Meanwhile, a section of engineering colleges said that they want the government to release 50 per cent of funds immediately. “The rest of the funds should be released by April first week. Otherwise, we will file a contempt petition against the government,” said K Krishna Reddy, president, Rural Engineering College Managements’ Association.

In spite of the court order, the government on Monday stated that it would not be able to release funds in a week’s time and said that the colleges would have to wait till the end of February for the same. The government also expressed it helplessness to release 50 per cent of the funds immediately. The officials, however, stated that they would come up with a permanent solution to the problem by the end of February.

Source : TOI