Chandrababu Naidu to KCR: Resolve fee reimbursement row

Hyderabad: The letter written by AP Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu to Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on the fee reimbursement issue is the first direct communication between the two chief ministers.

In a delicately worded letter, Mr Naidu wrote that more than two lakh students are “anxiously waiting for counselling” in both the states. He said AP is ready to begin counselling for admission and was waiting for Telangana to give its consent. Interestingly, Mr Naidu didn’t directly blame Telangana for delaying the counselling nor did he even directly refer to the controversial fee reimbursement issue. He only asked for the ‘consent’ of the government of Telangana to the High Court mandated amendments in the Category B admissions GO and then to begin the admission process. Tela-ngana government has not taken a decision on any of these issues so far.

Indirectly, Mr Naidu asked Mr Chandrasekhar Rao to resolve the fee reimbursement tangle, without mentioning it though it has been the main controversial issue and bone of contention between the two governments, and initiate counselling process.

 “I will be happy if the government of Telangana gives its consent to take up the admission process,” Mr Naidu wrote.

Telangana is adamant on reimbursing fee of Andhra students studying here while Andhra Pradesh has been demanding that the Telangana government pay for its students too.

The Supreme Court had already asked the states to complete counselling by July and begin classes from August 1.

“My government is ready to take up counselling process for admission in professional colleges for the academic year 2014-15. Because of the delay, the students of both states have started to migrate to colleges in other states causing financial and psychological burden to the parents and affecting colleges of both the states adversely.” Mr Naidu also stressed on the fact that the Re-organisation Act provides for status quo in education for ten years.

It is pertinent to mention here that the AP government had also asked the State Council for Higher Education (SCHE) for its opinion on going solo in the counselling. The SCHE had said such a move would lead to many problems.