Deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narasimha, who reviewed the fee issue with the task force members, told reporters on Saturday that since the fees were being reimbursed using public funds, any misuse of these funds attracted Anti-Corruption Bureau and vigilance cases.
Meanwhile, the government, which had given an undertaking to the AP High Court this week that it would issue orders fixing the fees for engineering colleges on August 25, failed to keep its promise till 10 pm on Saturday.
Officials had drafted the orders and secured approval from the deputy CM before referring the same to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy. In addition, while there were reports of the orders being issued by 8 pm, that did not materialise. Officials added that the orders might be issued by midnight.
Sources said that the government had fixed Rs 35,000 as fees for 481 colleges that had submitted affidavits to the Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC) and the same for another 100 colleges which had submitted affidavits to the government. For the other 73 colleges that had sought hikes, the fees were fixed in the range of Rs 50,200 to Rs 1.05 lakh. However, this will be subject to the final report of the inspection committees.