Andhra Pradesh benefits from scrapped FAST scheme

Hyderabad: Telangana government’s earlier decision to reject Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N.Chandrababu Naidu’s offer of sharing the fee reimbursement costs on the basis of population ratio has cost the government dearly while benefitting AP. TS Cabinet on Friday decided to scrap the controversial FAST scheme and revive the old fee reimbursement scheme.

In August last year, Naidu had offered to share the costs on a 58:42 population ratio, which meant that though the financial burden of the fee reimbursement scheme was higher on TS, the AP government would have paid more than what the TS government would have had to pay.

Sources also say that, despite reverting to the old scheme, the TS government will filter out colleges that will receive money under the scheme. “AP government had said it will pay 58 per cent of the total fee reimbursement. So naturally they would have paid more than what they are paying now and TS would have paid less than what it is going to do now,”  said a senior official.

However, colleges believe that it can still be claimed by the TS government. Congress Parigi MLA and head of the TRR Group of Institutions T. Ram Mohan Reddy said, “KCR didn’t refer to that offer yesterday but it would still stand because AP has reiterated the same offer in an affidavit they filed. TS government can claim that money.”