The issue of pending dues of the private degree colleges has sprung its head again, after the issue was buried under the carpet for last month when the college owners had called for a statewide strike to close the colleges indefinitely, and were assured by the senior officials for a resolution.
On Tuesday, November 19, colleges under five universities remained shut and the semester exams were also boycotted indefinitely by the college owners, demanding the immediate release of at least half of the total due of Rs 650 crore out of Rs 1,300 crore, pending for over three years now, according to a report by The New Indian Express.
Exam boycott
The indefinite boycott was called by Telangana Private Degree & PG College Management Association (TPDPMA), wherein, the colleges decided not to conduct the semester examinations for all the 1,048 undergraduate (UG) and postgraduate (PG) colleges under the five universities:
- Mahatma Gandhi University (MGU)
- Kakatiya University (KU)
- Satavahana University (SU),
- Palamuru University (PU)
- Telangana University (TU)
...with over seven lakh students getting affected.
The colleges under the Osmania University (OU) management, however, conducted the exams which were scheduled from Tuesday onwards, which has around 700 colleges under it.
However, other universities, where the examinations are scheduled in the week ahead, have decided to withhold conducting the exams till November 26.
Later in the day, TPDPMA members met Telangana Council of Higher Education (TGCHE) where they met TGHCE Chairman Prof V Balakista Reddy, and were assured of a meeting with Chief Minister Revanth Reddy.
Bojja Suryanarayana Reddy, state president, TPDMA, speaking to The New Indian Express, said, "This time we have decided not to budge unless the government releases our dues. We have been struggling to run the colleges for years now and the situation has only worsened after 2018. We have seen the worst since 2021. In our last meeting in October with the officials, we were assured that action would be taken to meet our demands."
Meeting with the CM
"However, there was no progress and we had to resort to boycotting the exams. We had a meeting with the chairman today (November 19) and we might be meeting the chief minister in the next two to three days to arrive a resolution. For now, the exams have been postponed till November 26," Reddy informed, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.
The TPDPMA members said that they were demanding at least Rs 600 crores, half of the total due, to be reimbursed, out of which Rs 450 crore was to be paid to private colleges and Rs 150 crore to government colleges.
They said that a token amount of around Rs 1,200 crores were released in the last 18 months, but no dues were released.
For 2021-22 20%; 70% for 2022-23; and for the academic year 2023-24, 100% dues were pending.
Prof Sriram Venkatesh, Secretary, TGCHE, told The New Indian Express, "Deliberations are going on and we are trying our best to arrive at a resolution with regards to the issue. We have told the college owners that we are very much concerned about the well-being of the students and the quality of education. As of now, the exams are on hold till November 26. Meanwhile we are to fix a meeting with the CM so that the owners can pose their situation and find a solution."
