HYDERABAD : The standoff between the state government and the managements of engineering colleges over the fee reimbursement scheme dues showed no signs of ending with the latter rejecting the government's offer to immediately pay Rs 1,000 crore and renewing their threat to shut down from February 24.

During a three-hour meeting that the cabinet sub-committee comprising nine ministers had with the engineering college managements on Wednesday, the state offered to make an immediate payment of Rs 1,000 crore of the total Rs 3,149 crore dues and the rest by March-end. Of these, the dues of the engineering colleges amount to Rs 1,700 crore while the technical, PG, degree and intermediate collegesaccount for the rest.

However, emerging out of the meeting, the engineering college managements said they would not settle for anything less than the paymentof the entire Rs 1,700 crore due to them towards tuition fee. The managements said they were ready to defer the strike by a week and wait till February 23 for the state to pay the total dues. "If the state does not pay us the total Rs 1,700 crore dues by February 23, we will close down the colleges from February 24," said K V K Rao, a management representative. Earlier, making the announcement of Rs 1,000 crore as immediate payment, social welfare minister Pithani Satyanarayana and transport minister Botsa Satyanarayana told the media that this was the maximum the government could do at this stage.

"The balance amount would be released by March-end. The managements of these colleges are expressing concern only about 6 lakhstudents in their colleges, while the government is trying to address the problem of 25 lakh students belonging to all streams," Botsa said.

Botsa said the sub-committee had also assured that from the next financial year, the government would release funds once every two months.

source : Times of India