Hyderabad, June 28: Senior Congress leaders on Sunday criticised the fast-unto-death undertaken by BC Welfare president R Krishnaiah and said that there are no plans for talks with him over the fee reimbursement issue.
Talking to media persons at the CLP on Sunday, Ministers Gade Venkat Reddy, Botsa Satyanarayana, Pilli Subash Chandra Bose and MLC Rudraraju Padmaraju questioned as to why would the government invite Mr Krishnaiah for talks.
They said that the need for talks would arise if the issue raised by the BC Welfare president was legitimate. The senior leaders said that when the government is releasing the funds for fee reimbursements, where does the need arise for talks.
The Congress leaders said that only those students who did not have valid bank accounts are the ones who are not receiving fee reimbursements. They assured the students that they would get reimbursements if they ensure that their bank accounts are proper.
The senior leaders also criticised Mr Krishnaiah by questioning him why had he kept silent before 2004, when BCs were included in the fee reimbursement list.
They reminded that before 2004, only SC and ST students were benefitting from the fee reimbursement scheme, but it was former chief minister late YS Rajasekhara Reddy who included the BCs among the list of beneficiaries of the scheme.
Reminding the students that Mr Krishnaiah claimed to have spent his entire adult life fighting for the cause of BC Welfare, they asked why had he not raised the issue of fee reimbursement until now.
The Congress leaders also said that if anyone tries to misuse the online system of fee reimbursements, then stringent action would be taken against these miscreants.
———INN