Telangana reverts to old rule on local status of students

Drops FAST (Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana) scheme

Ending a major controversy surrounding the local and non-local issue, the Telangana government has decided to follow the existing norms to determine the domicile status of students studying in Hyderabad and elsewhere in the state  for the purpose of granting scholarships.

It may be recalled that soon after forming the government on June, 2, 2014, coinciding with the state bifurcation, the Telangana government headed by chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao said it would extend scholarships to only those students whose parents had their roots in Telangana prior to 1956 when the combined state of Andhra Pradesh was formed.

The government had introduced a new scheme called FAST (Financial Assistance to Students of Telangana) based on this new definition while attracting widespread criticism as it was widely perceived as a move aimed against people, who had migrated to the city from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions.

Briefing the media, Rao said the government had decided to drop the idea of FAST and would continue with the existing scheme on the basis of Article 371(D), a special enabling provision of the Indian Constitution that was incorporated to ensure equitable opportunities for people of different regions of the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh.

Any person studied in a local educational institution for four consecutive years prior to 10th class is entitled for college seats and government jobs under the local quota according to the provisions of Article 371(D).

Student scholarships had become a big flagship programme of then chief minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy after his government introduced a fee-reimbursement scheme for students joining professional courses including engineering and medicine.

The scheme also became the single most reason for survival of over 800 engineering colleges having around 300,000 seats in the undivided state as more number of students were able to enter these colleges because the government was paying the entire tuition fee on their behalf.

The funding requirement for this open-ended programme grew manifold and reached Rs 4,000-5,000-crore before the undivided state’s last chief minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy imposed an eligibility criteria in addition to the financial status for getting the scholarship.

The Telangana government had barred as many as 174 engineering colleges out of the around 400 engineering colleges operating in the state for not having the basic infrastructure in addition to redefining the local status, leading to a sudden fall in the intake of students to a level of 50,000-60,000 in colleges operating in the state.

Some industry experts termed this as a setback particularly for the growth of the software industry in Hyderabad as this number, according to them, would only be sufficient to fill the vacancies that arise due to attrition. A little over 300,000 IT professionals are working in various software companies in Hyderabad city and the proliferation of engineering colleges in the undivided state was one of the important reasons for them to set up and expand their operations here.

Meanwhile, the state Cabinet also decided to release the remaining Rs 862 crore out of the Rs 1,650-crore scholarship dues inherited from the undivided state to the engineering colleges, in a clear evidence that the government had understood the adverse impact  of its earlier stand on the whole issue.