TDP MLA Pithani Satyanarayana challenges Telangana FAST scheme
He contending that the scheme was illegal, arbitrary and violate constitution
By : DC Correspondent
Update: 2014-08-02 03:37 GMT
Hyderabad: Former minister and Telugu Desam MLA of Andhra Pradseh Pithani Satyanarayana on Friday moved the Hyderabad High Court challenging a GO issued by the Telangana state government issued on July 30, 2014, to introduce the ‘Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana (FAST)’, a new scheme for the students pursuing ongoing studies and fresh admissions and students whose parents were bonafide residents of Telangana as on November 1, 1956.
Contending that the scheme was illegal, arbitrary and violative of Articles 14, 15, 19 (d) and (e) and 21 of the Constitution and Sections 95 and 75 of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2014, he urged the court to set aside the GO. He told the court while making the Act; Parliament has taken care to provide equal opportunities for quality higher education to all students in successor states.
He submitted that to achieve equal opportunities, existing admission quotas in all government or private, aided or unaided institutions of higher, technical and medical education should continue for a period of 10 years during which the existing common admission process should continue as per the Act.
The petitioner brought to the notice of the court that the Telangana government announced that the students whose parents are not residents as on November 1, 1956, will not be eligible to get benefit under the scheme.
The decision of the Telangana government intended to deny equal opportunities to the students whose parents are not residents as on November 1, 1956, and more particularly serious discrimination wo-uld be meted out against the students whose parents settled in Telangana area after 1956, he added. He contended that the GO is against the spirit of equality before and should be down away with.