Civil society urges Congress to intervene in Telangana fee reimbursement row

Civil society organisations, NGOs, and academicians in Telangana have urged the Congress leadership to intervene in the ongoing fee reimbursement crisis. The State government’s GO Ms 7, which mandates direct transfer of funds to students instead of colleges, has been stayed by the High Court.

Hyderabad: Civil society organisations, NGOs, social activists, community leaders, and academicians demanded the Congress party high command to intervene in resolving fee reimbursement mess created by the State government.

They urged the restoration and continuation of the original fee reimbursement mechanism by crediting the fee amount to colleges.

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The State government has recently issued GO Ms 7, introducing a mechanism of transferring the fee amount to students’ accounts via the DBT mode. It asked students to pay the fee to colleges after the amount is credited into their accounts. However, the High Court stayed this clause.

In a letter addressed to Congress MP Rahul Gandhi, Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy, and AICC Telangana in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan, the civil society organisations, social activists and academicians expressed serious apprehensions over the High Court staying the Clause XII of GO Ms 7.

Given the stay, the organisations pointed out that lakhs of students belonging to SC, ST, BC, Minority, and EBC communities in Telangana were being forced to arrange huge sums of money for admissions and many are at risk of discontinuing their education.

Pointing out that private colleges are facing severe financial stress due to non-release of scholarship dues, they said the uncertainty surrounding fee reimbursement scheme is affecting admissions for the current academic year.

“Marginalised communities are losing faith in the system meant to uplift them,” they said.

They demanded the State government immediately challenge the High Court’s interim order dated April 2, 2026, before the division bench and also release pending fee reimbursement and post-matric scholarship dues to educational institutions without any delay.

Further, they wanted a high-level committee comprising government representatives, educational institutions, student organisations and legal experts to resolve all pending issues. They also sought the appointment of senior counsel to ensure effective representation in all pending cases relating to scholarships, fee reimbursement and students’ educational rights.

ASEEM secretary SQ Masood, Human Rights Forum S Jeevan Kumar, Osmania University retired professors – Padmaja Shaw and Rama Malkote, Social activist Venkat Reddy, Academic and journalist Akhileshwari Ramagoud were among over 50 signatories to the letter.