Botcha adds to second thoughts on fee cap

The state government would rethink on implementing the proposal of keeping a cap on the reimbursement of the tuition fee of the students, who were studying in professional colleges, PCC chief Botcha Satyanarayana said on Wednesday.

Talking to reporters in New Delhi, he said that improper decisions, taken by the previous governments were creating hurdles in the implementation of the fee reimbursement scheme effectively. At the same time, Botcha wanted people to debate whether it was proper to reimburse the fee of students who failed in their examinations or not.

Taking strong exception to the claim of opposition parties that by trying to cap the fee reimbursement the government decided to mar the educational prospects of the students from backward classes, the PCC chief said that fee reimbursement scheme was applicable to students of various castes and religions whose parents’ annual income was below Rs 1 lakh per annum.

Therefore it was meaningless to say that the government was doing injustice to students from BC classes, he said.

Primary education minister S Sailajanath said that it would be better if fee reimbursement scheme was extended to all the students of government-run institutions up to the Intermediate level irrespective of caste and religion.

The minister made it clear that he was mooting this proposal in his individual capacity but it was up to the government to consider his suggestion so as to implement the fee reimbursement scheme in an effective manner.

Talking to reporters at the Congress Legislature Party office here,  Sailajanath said that the recommendations made by the cabinet sub-committee on fee reimbursement had neither been accepted nor rejected by the government so far and called upon student organisations, which are on the warpath against the proposal of limiting the fee reimbursement, to exercise restraint on the issue.