Amaravati, Nov 24 (IANS) Hitting back at former Chief Minister and YSR Congress Party president, Andhra Pradesh Minister for Education, IT and Electronics, Nara Lokesh, on Sunday said that the dues of the previous government to be paid as fee reimbursement which is imposed on the present government are not less than Rs 6,500 crore.

In a strong counter to Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy’s statement criticising the coalition government for neglecting the education sector, Lokesh told him that his inefficient government could not implement the promise of total fee reimbursement.

Stating that the previous ruling dispensation played with the lives of the students by amending the rules of fee reimbursement, Lokesh said while in power, Jagan acted in an irresponsible way but is now preaching values after losing power.

The Minister said that the future of lakhs of students is hanging in balance as they have not received their certificates due to dues to the tune of Rs 3,500 crore under Vidya Deevena and Vasathi Deevena.

The TDP leader said when I was on my Yuva Galam pada yatra, the students brought the issue to his notice and as per the promise made to them, the TDP-led NDA government resolved the issue immediately after coming to power.

The colleges have been directed to immediately issue their certificates to the students and a decision too was taken recently to pay the fee reimbursement amount directly to the colleges, he stated. He alleged that the entire academic sector was totally destroyed in the past five years due to wrong decisions of the Jagan Mohan Reddy government.

“Is it not a fact that the total strength of students in government schools has fallen by four lakh due to the faulty and corrupt decisions taken by the previous government in the past five years,” Lokesh asked.

Observing that the CBSE system was introduced without even preparing the students and the teachers, Lokesh felt that due to this 90 per cent of the students failed the CBSE exam that was conducted after the NDA came to power.

"You have taken the publicity to peak level by claiming Nadu-Nedu but the matter is very weak. During my ground-level visit I have found that several schools do not have even basic facilities like drinking water, toilets and even tables to sit. We are thus making preparations to assess the capacity of students on their schools campuses itself," he said.

Observing that it is the duty of this government to bring the academic sector back on track, the Minister said that it is moving ahead in a planned manner. "We are initially taking measures to provide basic amenities on the campuses and have already begun the exercise to fill the 16,347 vacant teacher posts through Mega DSC," the Minister for Education maintained.

He made it clear that the old fee reimbursement scheme will be revived in place of Vidya Deevena and Vasathi Deevena so that the students and their parents do not face any kind of problems.