Jolt to JNTU-Hyderabad students: TG EAPCET toppers denied full fee reimbursement

Students who secured top ranks in TG EAPCET 2024 and joined JNTU-Hyderabad College of Engineering, Kukatpally, are being denied full fee reimbursement. Despite eligibility, they are sanctioned only Rs. 35,000 per year instead of the full tuition fee, forcing them to bear the remaining cost.

Hyderabad: Despite being among the top rankers in the engineering stream of the Telangana Engineering, Agriculture and Pharmacy Common Entrance Test (TG EAPCET), many students are still deprived of their full fee reimbursement as the government is making only part-payments of the tuition fee.

The JNTU-Hyderabad College of Engineering, Kukatpally students who joined the BTech programmes in 2024 recently received a jolt when they realised that the government has only been sanctioning them Rs. 35,000 against paying the entire course fee of Rs. 1 lakh every academic year.

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As per the rules, students who secure ranks below 10,000 in the TG EAPCET, are extended full fee reimbursement by the State government irrespective of their community, provided they submit an income certificate. While SCs, STs and Minorities get full fee reimbursement irrespective of their ranks, students belonging to OC and BC communities are being given only Rs. 35,000, which is a base fee fixed for the engineering courses, and the remaining fee has to be borne by them.

These rules are not being implemented for TG EAPCET 2024 toppers. For example, B Neelendra, a student who secured rank 4,037 and admission in BTech CSE (AI and ML) at JNTU-Hyderabad College of Engineering Kukatpally, has been sanctioned Rs. 35,000 from September 1, 2024 to March 31, 2025 and the same amount has been sanctioned for June 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026, against Rs. 2 lakh for two years.

Similar is the predicament of G Durga Prasad who secured rank 2,763 and joined the BTech CSE (AI and ML) at the same college. “We recently realised that the government is sanctioning only Rs. 35,000 while we are eligible for full fee payment. When we raised the issue with the college principal , he asked us to meet the District Collector who in turn told us to contact the Social Welfare department officials. If the government does not pay, we will be forced to shell out from our pockets,” Durga Prasad lamented.

Meanwhile, the Students Protection Forum (SPF) urged the college principal Dr. G Venkata Narasimha Reddy, to constitute a committee comprising senior college officials to examine the issue in detail.

In a representation to the principal, SPF president Rahul Naik wanted the college to authorise the committee to coordinate with the district collectorate and ePass Office on behalf of affected students. He also wanted officials concerned to identify technical or administrative reasons behind the discrepancy and ensure full tuition fee payment as per the rules.