Telangana private pharmacy colleges call for indefinite strike over fee reimbursement arrears

After private degree and PG colleges, pharmacy colleges in the state have called for protest against inordinate delay in releasing the fee dues.

Hyderabad: After private degree and PG colleges, the private pharmacy colleges on Thursday called for indefinite strike, over fee reimbursement arrears from the Congress government, starting Monday.

The Telangana Private Pharmacy Colleges’ Managements Association took this decision during a meeting convened by its president T Jaipal Reddy and Secretary Pulla Ramesh Babu here. The pharmacy colleges have already boycotted classes in protest against inordinate delay in releasing the fee dues.

---

The government annually allocates Rs.150 crore as fee reimbursement towards pharmacy programmes offered by 122 pharmacy colleges in the State. However, the colleges have not been extended the fee reimbursement arrears to the tune of Rs.500 crore for the last three academic years, the association said.

“Due to non-release of fee dues by the government, the colleges are not able to pay salaries to the staff for the last five months. We have submitted representations to the Chief Minister and Ministers on several occasions only to be told that the issue will be taken care of but now are forced to hit the streets. We want the government to immediately release the fee dues,” said Rama Das, honorary chairman of the association.

Meanwhile, after a four day protest the Telangana Private Degree and PG Colleges Management Association (TPDMA) on Thursday called off strike after assurance from the government to release fee dues.

Principal Secretary to Government (Education) Burra Venkatesham who met the protesting managements requested them to call off the strike. Venkatesham, according to managements, assured on behalf of Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy that steps would be initiated to release pending fee reimbursement arrears.

“Since we got assurance we called off the strike,” said Bojja Suryanarayana Reddy, president TPDMA. The TPDMA office bearers Yada Ramakrishna, Subhash Reddy, Parameshwar and Dr Narender Reddy among others participated in the meeting.