Talks on Fee Reimbursement Held Between a Cabinet sub-committee and Private College Managements fails

Second round of talks on fee reimbursement held between a Cabinet sub-committee and private college managements failed on Saturday. Engineering college managements which had called for a shutdown from February 16 have decided to go ahead with the strike.

Though the government assured the college managements of a payment of Rs 600 crore as the first instalment, over 600 engineering colleges did not agree to call off the strike. A third round of meeting will be held on February 16 to resolve the reimbursement issue, management representatives said.

"We are open to talks but the government should make a better proposal than this Rs 600 crore (proposal)," said K V K Rao, a representative of engineering college managements.

Meanwhile, the engineering colleges under the Consortium of Private Engineering College Managements' Association (CPECMA) said that they had never agreed to participate in the strike. "We are ready to be patient with the government. However, we want the funds to be transferred by June this year," a CPECMA representative said.