If you are a student born in Telangana but with Seemandhra ancestry, you are likely to lose out on the benefit of the fee reimbursement scheme (now changed to FAST) on two counts – the nativity cut-off date of 1956 to be adopted by the Telangana Government from this year and the Andhra Pradesh Government also disowning you as you technically belong to the Telangana State.
So far, the argument of the AP government has been that Telangana government has to pay for the AP students getting admitted in the 15 per cent open merit (non-local) category. They have not yet revealed their stand on Telangana students with Seemandhra ancestry since they are now being dubbed as ‘non-locals’ by the Telangana government.
The number of such students is likely to be a few lakhs though the exact figure is not available with any department as none expected to come across such a scenario.
Lakhs of people migrated to Hyderabad in the last five decades for better life as it was the State capital, and these include not just the government employees but also people working in private companies, hotel industry and doing petty businesses.
A few lakhs spread to nearby districts like Ranga Reddy, Medak, Mahabubnagar and Nalgonda for employment. Their children were born and brought up here but now they face a dilemma of being considered ‘non-local’ in both Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
As per the norms, those who have studied in the Telangana region comprising Hyderabad (Twin Cities), Adilabad, Ranga Reddy, Karimnagar, Khammam, Medak, Mahbubnagar, Nalgonda, Nizamabad and Warangal for four consecutive years preceding their qualifying exam are considered Osmania University locals (Telangana locals) irrespective of their place of birth or ancestry.
Similar is the case with Coastal Andhra comprising eight districts of Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Vishakhapatnam, East Godavari, West Godavari, Krishna, Guntur and Prakasam who are considered Andhra University Local Area (Andhra).
Those belonging to districts of Anantapur, Kurnool, Chittoor, Kadapa and Nellore are considered locals of Sri Venkateswara University Local Area (Rayalaseema). After bifurcation, both Andhra and Rayalaseema students are likely to be locals for the 13 districts.
