Hyderabad:

When P Sravan Kumar secured 532 rank in the IIT entrance test, his father Maaraiah almost told him to give up the coveted seat. A porter belonging to a Scheduled Caste, he couldn’t afford to pay the fees. Then he heard of the Andhra Pradesh government scheme offering total reimbursement of fees and scholarship for underprivileged students. Into his second semester, however, the IIT-Madras mechanical engineering student finds himself back where he started as the government struggles to find the funds and to keep the promise made to many like Sravan.

“When I got a rank in the IIT entrance test, the state government gave Rs 50,000 cash award from which I paid Rs 20,000 asadmission fees and Rs 17,000 as hostel fees at IIT-Madras. The remaining amount was spent in travel and other expenses. From the second semester, I do not know what I will do. Colleagues here are suggesting that I take a study loan from a bank,” says Sravan.

The daughter of an agricultural labourer, Nirmala secured 1606th rank in the all-India IIT exam and was selected by the Indian School of Mines, Dhanbad. “The fact that her entire fees would be paid by the government and that she would get an allowance every month emboldened me,” says her father K Govardhan. “I had never heard of the place where she is studying. Even now I do not know the name of the institute and which state.”

Govardhan paid Rs 17,000 as fees and hostel expenses after taking advance from a chit fund. “If the government does not reimburse the fees before the second semester, I will have to withdraw money from a fixed deposit of Rs 50,000, drawn from the money she received as award,” he says.

Same is the case with Warangal’s J Mohan, a student of IIT-Rourkee, who recently lost his labourer father; C Ravi Kumar, a mason’s son from Nellore, who made it to the Indian School of Mines; G Balaraju, the son of a labourer from Mahbubnagar studying at IIT-Madras; and K K Prem Chand, who made it to IIT-Kanpur from Pedapadu, West Godavari.

Targeted at socially backward families and those with less than Rs 1 lakh annual income, the Andhra Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme covers the tuition fees of all students belonging to such families apart from payment of a monthly allowance in the form of scholarships. However, students from Andhra studying outside the state have run into trouble, with the money still to reach their institutes, as promised under the scheme.

In 2011, 156 students belonging to SCs, STs and backward classes cracked the IIT-JEE.

While Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy directed officials at a July 28 meeting to inform all colleges that they should not take fees from students eligible for the scheme and that the government would directly reimburse them, students fear institutes outside the state are not likely to comply.

“Admissions in Andhra are yet to start and the fee reimbursement process will begin by November. Semesters at IITs, NITs and other premier institutes elsewhere have already started and students taking admissions there have to pay from their pockets for now. We will reimburse them once the process starts here. I am sure they will receive the money by the time second semesters start,” says Deputy Director, Commissionerate of Social Welfare, Madhusudhan.

J Raymond Peter, Principal Secretary, Social Welfare Department, which manages the scheme, says these students can approach their respective institutes to claim back the fees they paid once the Andhra government starts the reimbursement process.

Joint Secretary, Social Welfare, Mohammed Miya says the government is trying to speed up reimbursement for students studying outside the state. “It is in the process with the Finance Department,’’ he said.

The Scheme

A Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme offering reimbursement of tuition fees plus monthly allowance. Students whose annual family income is Rs 1 lakh or below are automatically eligible; also covered are all BC, SC/ST and disabled students.

Students are covered intermediate onwards. Around 26.09 lakh students are eligible for the scheme this year.

 

Students can opt from over 1,600 courses including engineering and medical. The government reimburses the fees directly to the educational institutions

source:http://www.expressindia.com/ by Sreenivas Janyala / Aug 11th, 2011