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.

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Professional colleges to be closed from February 16

College managements seek 1,900 cr. by Feb. 15; government says it can release only 600 cr.

‘State has not paid a single rupee though 3,800 cr. is to be paid for current academic year'

HYDERABAD: The Consortium of Engineering and Professional Colleges Managements' Association here on Friday announced their decision to close all the colleges from February 16 following what they termed as'`failure' of the talks with the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the fee reimbursement issue.

While the government made it clear that it could only release Rs.600 crore towards fee reimbursement, the college managements insisted that nothing less than Rs.1,900 crore by February 15 was acceptable to them.

The three-hour meeting was attended by the five-member GoM comprising Botcha Satyanarayana, K Parthasarathy, C. Damodar Rajanarsimha, Pithani Satyanarayana and Basavaraju Saraiah and the representatives of the Consortium from all the three regions,

Emerging from the meeting, Social Welfare Minister Pithani Satyanarayana and Higher Education Minister Damodar Rajanarsimha said that the government had cleared the arrears of 2009-10 and for the current academic year, it would give a release order for Rs.600 crore in two or three days and the rest in phases in the next financial year. Mr. Rajanarsimha said that an option of giving bank guarantee to enable the managements raise loans in the meantime also came up in the meeting and it would be taken to the notice of Chief Minister. The GoM and the college management representatives would meet again on Saturday.

On the other hand, Consortium Chairman N. Ramesh Babu, working president Krishna Rao and Secretary K. V. K. Rao said they were extremely disappointed with the stubborn stand of the Government. They said that out of Rs.3,800 crore to be paid for the current academic year, even after seven months, government did not release a single rupee towards tuition fee-reimbursement. While they demanded 50 per cent of the amount before February 15, government was only willing to pay 15 per cent.

Mr. Ramesh Babu said if Rs.1,900 crore was not released by February 15, 50 per cent of engineering and other colleges offering MCA, MBA, Pharmacy etc., would die a ‘natural death'. The government was not at all talking about funds due for 2010-11 and nor had it given any promise. Representatives of associations from all the three regions, Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana announced that they had no option but to close down their colleges numbering about 2,000 from February 16 because of severe financial crisis.

Source: The Hindu

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HYDERABAD: The Consortium of Engineering and Professional Colleges Managements Association has threatened to close down colleges if the government doesn't pay fee reimbursement dues to the tune of Rs. 4,250 crore by February 15.

“We will be forced to collect the same from students if the government fails to release funds,” said the consortium chairman, N. Ramesh and secretary general K.V.K. Rao here on Sunday. They claimed that government had given an undertaking to the Supreme Court that pending dues under fee reimbursement scheme would be released by January 29 and failed to honour it.

“A few days ago, it released a G.O. releasing Rs. 300 crore just to escape the Supreme Court deadline, but that money is yet to reach the colleges.” They said they would lay siege to the Assembly with the help of students if the money was not released.

Protest plan

As a prelude, dharnas would be staged all the collectorates in the State. Alleging that the funds meant for students were being diverted to Rachabanda and contractors, Mr. Ramesh said they were being blackmailed in the name of grading and infrastructure deficiencies whenever they pressured the government for funds release. “Don't start schemes if you can't provide funds,” they advised.

Mr. Rao and Mr. Ramesh said they were not able to pay salaries to the staff. Teachers had threatened to go on strike and the future of lakh of children would be in jeopardy if the government didn't respond. Nine months had passed since the academic year had begun, but the government was not concerned about colleges and students.

Tuition fee hike urged

The consortium also demanded that tuition fee be hiked to Rs. 45,000 as they could not run colleges with the present fee. They strongly opposed AICTE's new norms that allowed colleges to get additional seats every year arguing that it would only benefit a few colleges.

“We demand the government not to allow new engineering colleges or increase the intake.” The AICTE, they said, was acting like a commercial organisation collecting huge fees for every activity and said a delegation would soon meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal to represent the issue.

They also demanded abolition of weightage system alleging that it was leading to inordinate delay in announcement of EAMCET results . “The government should ensure that classes should start by July 1 every year like in other States,” they said.

Source : The Hindu

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