Hyderabad, October 1 (IANS) In Telangana, private professional colleges have again threatened to go on indefinite strike by the state government to demand the release of fee reimbursement arrears.
The Federation of Association of Telangana Higher Education (FATHI) set the deadline of October 12 on October 12 to release the dues to the government on Wednesday.
After a meeting of Fati, its chairman N. Ramesh Babu announced that if the arrears were not approved by October 12, the college would go on indefinite strike from October 13.
Colleges including engineering, pharma, nursing, MBA, MCA and B.Ed colleges started an indefinite strike on 15 September, but after assurance from the government they closed the strike on the same day.
Fati said that Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramark, who led a group of ministers in talks with him, gave an assurance that Rs. On September 600 crore 21-22, fee will be issued towards reimbursement arrears, but only 200 crores have been released.
Referring to the assurance of the government to release Rs.1,200 crore by Diwali, Fati leaders demanded that the government makes a statement how it was going to do it.
He also clarified that further talks on the arrears would be with the Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) only.
He also said that, if necessary, he will protest against the students ‘Chalo Hyderabad’.
The association went on an indefinite strike on 15 September after talks with a group of ministers led by Deputy Chief Minister Bhatti Vikramark.
He announced after the talks that the government gave a positive reply, keeping in mind the problems of the management of colleges and the future of students studying in these colleges.
“Although this is a financial burden, the government immediately decided to release Rs.
Vikramark, who has a finance portfolio, assured that the pending dues would be approved in a phased manner.
Griving the previous BRS government for heavy pending arrears, the deputy CM announced that a committee would be formed for rationalization of the fee reimbursement scheme.
Ministers Sridhar Babu and Uttam Kumar Reddy also participated in the talks.
Earlier, on 12 September, Fati, President of Telangana Council of Higher Education, Prof. V. A notice was presented to Balacista Reddy.
According to the Federation, the fee reimbursement arrears are pending to the tune of Rs 10,000 crore. It said that if the government releases Rs 1,200 crore related to the already generated tokens, they will rethink their decisions indefinitely.
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MS/Red