YSR Congress honorary president Y S Vijaya Lakshmi has started a two day fast ‘Fees Deeksha’ at the Indira Park in Hyderabad, demanding that every eligible candidate should be given fees reimbursement irrespective of the rank he or she has secured. Speaking on the occasion, she has demanded that the fees reimbursement scheme should be implemented without any changes. Demanding that the new restrictions be lifted, Vijayamma said the government should reimburse the entire fee of all eligible students so that the poor could pursue higher studies.
She said the late Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy had considered higher studies a right of the poor. It was with this view that the fees reimbursement scheme was introduced for the first time in the entire nation, she recalled. Now by imposing restrictions on the scheme, she has alleged that the government was causing agony to the parents of the poor. She said she did not understand why the government was considering fees reimbursement to be a burden. She has recalled how her late husband had implemented the scheme without any limitations or restrictions. She has demanded that the scheme be implemented in its original form, without any changes.
Vijayamma has recalled that her husband used to state that it was the responsibility of the government to provide opportunities to every student to pursue higher studies free of cost. She has questioned how the government thought that the poor parents would be able to pay thousands of rupees towards fees in higher educational institutions. She has charged the government of deliberately diluting the fee reimbursement scheme. Stating that her party stood by the poor students, she has reminded that her son Jagan had also undertaken Deeksha on the fees issue. (NSS)