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Journalism of Courage
The Andhra Pradesh government has decided to take criminal action against 2,000 fake nursing,engineering and junior colleges that had been claiming huge amounts of money under its tuition fee reimbursement scheme. Started by the late YS Rajasekhara Reddy,tuition fees were reimbursed to students from the minority community and economically backward classes whose annual family income is less than Rs 1 lakh.
The government has also detected many cases of double claims by students for example,students who were claiming money under the minority category were also getting reimbursements under the economically backward classes category. There were students who claimed reimbursement from more than one source, sources said.
Also,40 per cent of students who claimed reimbursement last year did not come back for renewal this time,pointing at bogus claims.
To put an end to misappropriation of funds for welfare purposes,the government now plans to introduce an online system of reimbursing fees to students.
In the light of the cabinet sub-committees findings,the government insisted on improving the system so that only people who deserve can get the benefits, sources added.
Students will now have to give bank account details so that money is disbursed to them directly and quickly.
Andhra Pradesh Minority Finance Corporation (APMFC) used to release the amount to college managements for each student.
The state had spent Rs.18.55 crore in tuition fee reimbursements in 2008 benefiting 73,818 backward class and minority students. Earlier,some colleges had moved court after payments got delayed. The SC had last month directed the state government to pay arrears of the scheme to students of engineering and medicine,both in private and government colleges,within four weeks.
