Telangana private colleges announce indefinite bandh from Tuesday over fee reimbursement arrears

TPDMA President Bojja Suryanarayana Reddy and Secretary Yada Ramakrishna announced an indefinite bandh, citing non-cooperation from employees and college building owners, until the government clears the pending fee dues.

 

Hyderabad: The Telangana Private Degree and PG Colleges Management Association (TPDMA) on Monday announced indefinite bandh until the Congress government clears the fee reimbursement arrears.

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The managements decided not to hold classes starting Tuesday as they were unable to run colleges due to non-release of fee reimbursement arrears by the government.

“Due to non-cooperation of our employees and college building owners, the managements decided to hold an indefinite bandh until the government pays the fee dues,” said Bojja Suryanarayana Reddy and Yada Ramakrishna, president and secretary TPDMA.

According to the managements, the government has been allocating Rs.2,500 crore annually towards fee reimbursement for both professional and nonprofessional courses. Out of the total amount, except for engineering programmes, all other programmes get 50 per cent translating to Rs.1,250 crore.

The colleges have been extending education to 11 lakh students in the State.

Fee reimbursement dues to the tune of around 20 per cent for 2021-22, 70 per cent for 2022-23 and 100 per cent for the academic year 2023-24 were pending from the government, they said, adding that tokens for Rs.1,200 crore were issued to colleges in the last 10 months but the amount was not released.

The college correspondents lamented that due to non-release of fee dues they were unable to pay staff salaries and rent for the buildings. Further, they said the colleges’ owners were neither able to pay interest for loans nor secure fresh loans, making it tough to run colleges.

Despite several representations to the ministers and advisors to the government to release the dues and help them celebrate Dasara festival, there was no response, the colleges owners said, adding that they already made clear to universities registrars and TGCHE chairman Prof. R Limbadri that they cannot operate colleges due to fee dues.

The association urged the government to immediately respond and resolve the issue.