State bifurcation is likely to cast its shadow on the fee reimbursement scheme with no party giving clarity on the popular scheme that benefited more than 27 lakh students in the undivided State.
The biggest question emerging is whether Seemandhra students taking admission in Telangana State will get the reimbursement benefit and vice-versa. Crossover is common among the top rankers as they choose the best colleges in both regions.
“It depends on the policy of the new governments in both States,” an official said.
With ambiguity over continuation of the scheme itself, students may have to pay the fee when they take up the admission itself and later get it reimbursed depending on the respective Government’s policy.
Till now, students just had to submit the income certificate of less than one lakh per annum to secure admission.
Officials have planned to start classes for engineering and other professional courses from July. It is also reminded that the residual Andhra Pradesh is likely to start with budget deficit and parties in Telangana may not be so keen on continuation of the scheme for various reasons.
With Telangana’s focus on power generation, it may not be keen to allot sufficient funds for fee reimbursement, they observe while pointing out that the scheme is also beset with problems like ‘ineligible’ students and college managements.
Expecting such a situation, perhaps, even the number of applicants have come down by 5,000 in engineering despite the enrolment in Intermediate increasing.
College managements fear that students may not opt for professional courses if the scheme is dropped in the emerging new States.
Fee reimbursement scheme cost increased from Rs 1,000 crore per annum in 2009
to Rs 4,500 crore last year.
Government pays Rs 35,000 per annum for engineering courses, Rs 27,000 for MBA & MCA courses and Rs 31,000 for the B. Pharm course if parents’ income is less than Rs. One lakh per annum
Full fee reimbursement for students with ranks below 10,000 in EAMCET and ICET.
