AICTE prods Telangana, Andhra Pradesh governments to clear reimbursement fee dues to colleges

Hyderabad: At this time when the State governments in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh are struggling to cope up with the financial crunch, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has asked the chief secretaries of both the States to release funds pending towards the fee reimbursement scheme.

According to the sources in the State Higher Education Department (SHED), the AICTE letter comes against the backdrop of several private college managements insisting the students and parents to pay the fee but not paying salaries to the teaching and non-teaching staff. Besides, several colleges are terminating the services of the faculty.

It may be mentioned here that AICTE has earlier issued a notification barring any institution resorting to non-payment of salaries and terminating the services of any of the teaching and non-teaching staff during the nation-wide COVID-19 lockdown period.

However, the college management had informed AICTE that they were facing financial difficulties to comply with its directions as the state governments are yet to release funds under the fee reimbursement scheme.

Speaking to The Hans India, a senior official from the AICTE, regional office said that the letter to the state chief secretaries urging them to release funds under the fee reimbursement scheme comes since the college managements told the apex technical education regulators that "they can comply with the directions of the council if they get funds either by collecting fee or release of pending fee reimbursement dues."

While urging the State government to do the needful AICTE has made it clear to the college managements that "salary and other dues to the faculty and staff members will have to be released for the duration of the lockdown. Also, terminations, if any, made during the lockdown will have to be withdrawn."

The council has also directed its affiliated Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), including the standalone institutions that they "should not insist on payment of fee till the ongoing lockdown is lifted and normalcy is restored." It further asked all the institutions to display the information regarding its directions on the college websites and to communicate the same to the students through e-mails.