Authorities are working out on the modalities to put several such riders to ensure that only ‘genuine’ students get the benefit while weeding out those joining the courses just because the Government pays the fee. Academic performance will be the main criterion apart from fulfilling other criterion like the parents’ annual income. Even the best students may not get the total fee reimbursed unless needy, senior officials, pleading anonymity said.

“Fee reimbursement scheme will see changes and a committee of IAS officers will decide on the new modalities. It is not free for all and more so, for the ineligible,” an official involved in the FAST scheme said.

“Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao, wants engineers, who can meet the demands of the IT industry that will take a huge leap with the Information Technology Investments Region (ITIR) projects. Hence, he is serious about Telangana students benefitting from it,” the official said. He reminds that the employability of local engineers is just eight per cent compared to 47 per cent of Tamil Nadu. FAST will focus to create such serious professionals, he said.

The present scheme is grossly misused and funds are unevenly distributed, officials said. In the combined State, out of the Rs. 4,500 crore spent on reimbursement, 75 per cent was grabbed by students of engineering, MBA, MCA and Pharmacy, who are just 20 per cent of the student community. It means nearly 80 per cent of funds are going to just 20 per cent of students, officials claim.

Last year 28 lakh students benefitted from fee reimbursement of which 14.88 lakh were from Telangana. The number is likely to come down to just around 8 lakh this year due to the nativity factor being introduced. The Government said students whose parents were residents of Telangana region before November 1, 1956 will be eligible for the scheme virtually ruling out any scope for students from Andhra region to benefit.

Nativity issue

Officials say the reason behind designing the new ‘nativity’ norm is the large number of Seemandhra region students in Telangana. Nearly 39,000 students from Seemandhra districts are pursuing education in Telangana gaining admission through the 15 per cent non-local (open merit) quota.

Of this nearly 24,000 are in professional colleges, 6,000-odd each in Intermediate and Degree colleges. On the other side about 18,000 Telangana students are in Andhra Pradesh and majority of them have gone there to pursue education while their parents are still residents of Telangana.

However, number of students with Seemandhra ancestry will be much higher as thousands of students born in Telangana to parents from Seemandhra region are now technically considered as Telangana students only. The new norm plans to identify and make them ineligible for FAST scheme.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> News> National> Andhra Pradesh / by R. Ravikanth Reddy / Hyderabad – July 19th, 2014