HYDERABAD: Private engineering colleges using certificates as a bait to arm-twist students enrolled under State government’s fee reimbursement scheme into paying the pending fees have jeopardised the career prospects of thousands in the city. Students allege that college managements are demanding that either they pay the fee and take their original certificates or wait for the certificates until the government releases the funds.
Forum Against Corruption, Hyderabad, has meanwhile sent a legal notice to all the engineering colleges in the State stating that such action by colleges was not just illegal but also amounted to extortion. Vijay Gopal, its president, said, “Asking scholarship students to pay their pending fee from their pocket or asking such students to pay full course fee ( for four years) if they wish to discontinue the course mid session, also amounts to extortion under Sections 383 and 384 of Indian Penal Code (IPC).”
As per the UGC guidelines on Students Entitlement issued in 2016, educational institutions are not permitted to ask for the original documents of the students. Meanwhile, college managements have put the blame squarely on the government which needs to clear nearly Rs 2,000 crore towards fee dues, with nearly Rs 300 to Rs 400 crore backlog from 2014-15 batch ( which graduated this year) too.
“If we hand the certificates over to the students and if the government says these are not genuine beneficiaries, we will incur losses,” explained Goutham Rao, president, Telangana Engineering Colleges management Association. Though management can file civil suits to extract fee from students, it is a tedious process that may take up to seven years. “The only solution to this problem is that government should release the reimbursement timely,” said KRK Rao general secretary, All India Federation of Self Financing Technical Institutions ( AIFSFTI).
Reimbursing the fee
Rs 2,000 crore pending dues
100 colleges yet to get reimbursement for 2014-15 to 2017-18 batch
Next reimbursement likely only by 2018 end