Andhra CM disburses Rs 699 cr for students' education fee reimbursement

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy on Sunday released Rs 699 crore under a flagship government scheme for total fee reimbursement to eligible students studying a variety of courses.

As many as 9.8 lakh students pursuing ITI, polytechnic, degree, engineering, medicine and other professional courses will benefit from the Jagananna Vidya Deevena scheme for the quarter October to December, 2022. Under the scheme, the fee of students belonging to Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, backward classes, minorities, Kapus, economically backward classes and persons with disabilities (PwD) categories will be reimbursed. These funds will be directly credited into the bank accounts of the students' mothers.

After disbursing the fees by clicking a button, the Chief Minister noted that the fate of the poor can be changed for better only through education.

Reddy pointed out that Jagananna Vidya Devena scheme was introduced with the single aim of offering higher education to poor students.

Till now, the southern state has transferred Rs 13,311 crore as part of this scheme and Vasathi Devena, with the former alone accounting for Rs 9,947 crore, benefiting up to 27 lakh students. Under Jagananna Vasathi Devena, the government provides for the hostel and mess charges of below poverty line (BPL) students.

"Today should be better than yesterday, tomorrow should be better than today and one should have the best future than a better tomorrow," the Chief Minister said.

According to Reddy, only good education can guarantee the best future, leading to decent livelihood and life.

Meanwhile, the Chief Minister held a meeting with senior officials to take cognisance of the quantum of crop losses suffered by farmers due to the recent untimely rains.

He instructed officials to start enumerating the losses immediately, including issuing directions to district collectors for completing this exercise in a week's time and start helping the farmers.