Fee cap row at review meeting

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The Rs 35,000 cap and below 10,000 rank ceiling fixed by the government for fee reimbursement to minority students is threatening to snowball into a major political controversy with even the MIM, an ally of the ruling Congress, accusing the government of adopting an anti-minority policy.

The YSR Congress and Telugu Desam, are already in the fray against the Congress government over fee reimbursement and are demanding full fee reimbursement to minority students.

At the Hyderabad District Review meeting on Saturday, seven MIM legislators, led by party Floor leader Akbaruddin Owaisi, demanded that the government immediately withdraw the anti-minority student clause as counselling is in progress.

“This fee reimbursement policy is wrong, and if the government doesn’t remo-ve the fee cap and ceiling, it will distance the minorities from the Congress,” said Mr Owaisi.

The MIM legislators stalled the meeting for almost an hour.

Repeated pleas by the three ministers J. Geetha Reddy, Danam Nagender and Mukesh Goud failed to convince the MLAs.

The MIM legislators argued that the fee limit will deny opportunity to poor students from minority communities to pursue higher education. The fee fixed by the state government for high-end engineering colleges is far higher than the amount it reimburses to the students, Owaisi said.

“Many families are unable to pay the balance and it will result in denial of admissions in the ongoing counselling,” he said.