HYDERABAD: The fate of first semester college exams slated for December 7 to 13 in six universities, including Osmania, Kakatiya and Telangana, hangs in the balance.

The Telangana Private Degree Colleges Association on Saturday declared that it is boycotting the exams because the government has not released their fee reimbursement dues.

According to T. Vijay Bhaskar Reddy, general secretary of the association, colleges have no other option in view of the financial crisis they are in at present.
“The pending arrears for degree, PG and Intermediate colleges alone is over Rs 1000 crore. Most of the colleges are in a difficult situation and they are looking to the government to bail them out,” he said.

Representatives from all districts backed the boycott decision in an executive meeting held here on Saturday. The association’s members have met the finance, education and social welfare ministers as well as some of the vice-chancellors in the last few days hoping their pleas will be heard.

The student community is obviously unhappy with this development. The face-off between government and college managements and uncertainty over exams is bound to affect their preparations, a student said.

“Nearly 2.3 lakh students are in their first year. Neither the government nor the college managements are thinking about our future,” said the student who did not want to be named.

It may be recalled that college managements went on a flash strike a few days before the start of the supplementary exams in October. The government then released part payment of Rs 258 crore out of the total Rs 2,100 crore it owes the colleges. Colleges were assured that the remainder would be released phase-wise, but this did not happen.