Hyderabad: Lakhs of undergraduate students are set to miss their semester examinations as the Telangana State Private Degree and PG Colleges Management Association on Monday announced that all degree colleges will be closed and exams boycotted over govt failure to reimburse fee dues.
The managements, who held a similar bandh about 40 days ago, said this time they are not going to reopen colleges until the govt clears at least 650 crore out of about 1,300 crore dues that it owes to degree and postgraduate colleges.
“Earlier, we had called off the strike as the education secretary assured us that dues would be cleared within three to four days. It’s been 40 days now, but till now not even a rupee has been paid. So, we have decided to boycott semester-end examinations and keep our colleges shut until dues are cleared,” said association state secretary Yada Ramakrishna.
There are 860 degree and postgraduate colleges in the state. Of these, about 800 colleges are affiliated to various state universities and the remaining are autonomous colleges. About seven lakh students study in these colleges.
While exams for third and fifth semester degree students in colleges affiliated with Osmania University (OU) are scheduled to begin from Nov 19, for students in colleges affiliated to Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU), and for those under Kakatiya University (KU) and Telangana University, exams are scheduled to begin on Nov 25 and Nov 26 respectively.
“We are unable to survive and have no option except to shut colleges. The govt is neither releasing reimbursement dues nor allowing us to collect them from students by withholding certificates. How are we expected to function?” asked Koradala Naresh, president of OU Degree Colleges Management Association.
He added that unless the govt clears at least 650 crore, for which tokens were released about 18 months back, they will go ahead with the bandh.
The association has already submitted a bandh and boycott notice to the chairman of the Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE) and registrars of OU and KU.
TGCHE chairman V Balakista Reddy said: “I have asked managements to give me a week to resolve the issue and requested them not to go ahead with the bandh as students will suffer if exams are postponed. We are trying to resolve the issue.”
