The Telangana government has constituted a five-member official committee to finalise the guidelines for the Financial Assistance for Students of Telangana (FAST).
The committee members include principal secretary of Scheduled Castes development, ST, BC welfare departments; secretary of higher education department; principal secretary of panchayat raj and rural development; principal secretary of general administration department and secretary of law department. The committee will submit its report to the state government for its approval. Orders to this effect were issued by chief secretary Rajiv Sharma on Wednesday. FAST is intended to reimburse the fees for SC, ST and BC students who are pursuing professional and other courses.
Earlier, the state government had shelved the existing fee reimbursement scheme and replaced it with FAST and accordingly orders to constitute an official committee to finalise the guidelines for FAST were issued. According to FAST, the fees of only those students whose parents had settled in Telangana on or before November 1, 1956 will be reimbursed.
The state government had conducted a meeting on July 5 on the issue. Students pursuing post-matric courses and those seeking admission into similar courses for the 2014-15 academic year come under the purview of the scheme.
Revenue Dept to issue Nativity Certificates:
With a view to enable students of Telangana to get financial assistance, it is proposed to lay down fundamental principles on which the policy would operate.
FAST is applicable to students of Telangana and shall come into force from the current academic year. The certificated for bonafide residents shall be issued by the revenue department after seeking information from the applicants through a detailed format to ascertain the residence status of the parents/ grandparents of the students.
The detailed guidelines for the implementation of the scheme in 2014-15 will be finalised by a committee of principal secretaries /secretaries.
Source: The New Indian Express