By DC Correspondent

Copyright deccanchronicle

VIJAYAWADA: Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council witnessed heated debate between the ruling TDP and opposition YSR Congress members on issues of fee-reimbursement and implementation of Talliki Vandanam scheme.When the council session began on Tuesday, chairman Koyye Moshenu Raju disallowed the adjournment motion that YSR Congress members had given seeking a discussion on fee-reimbursement to students. Over this, opposition members raised protest, following which Education minister Lokesh faulted the previous YSR Congress regime for not paying fee-reimbursement arrears worth ₹4,000 crore, ₹644 crore during the Covid-19 period, ₹3,000 crore as reimbursement of tuition fee and ₹895 crore of maintenance fee to students. “How can you target our government for your failures,” Lokesh asked. He pointed out that ₹1,200 crore had been released during 2024-25 after the NDA government took reins and assured to clear the pending fee of ₹1,400 crore in the next three months. When leader of opposition in council Botsa Satyanarayana demanded for discussion on the issue, minister Lokesh asked him why his party failed to raise this issue during the Business Advisory Committee meeting. He said YSRC did not do so for fear of getting exposed for not implementing the scheme properly. Botsa countered saying the minister is misleading the house as well as the people. Chairman Moshenu Raju said he has already disallowed the adjournment motion and there is no need for the government to give any clarification on the subject. With heated arguments continuing amid ruling and opposition members finding fault with each other, Lokesh charged that 12 lakh students had been denied access to government schools during the previous YSR Congress regime. He asked the YSR Congress to raise the issue in another format for a detailed discussion in the house. Later, when the council took up the question hour, the YSRC members Ramesh Yadav and Bommur Israel sought details of students who had benefitted under the Talliki Vandanam scheme in the state. Lokesh replied saying 66.57 lakh students are benefiting from the scheme in the state. ₹2,000 being deducted from the total amount of students studying in private schools is being utilised to strengthen the overall educational ecosystem, like infrastructure, hygiene and school maintenance. The YSRC member said some students are being denied the financial benefit on grounds that their families are consuming more than 300 units of power or own 1,000 square feet area or do not have rice cards and so on. The minister responded saying these norms had been introduced by the previous YSR Congress regime. They are only adhering to those norms. He assured to implement the scheme for all eligible students. He said they are looking into the issue of providing the benefit of the scheme to ASHA workers and ANMs. The government has already issued a memo making sanitation workers eligible for the scheme.