Technical education institutions in Tamil Nadu seek Rs 50,000 crore relief package

COIMBATORE: Representatives of technical institutions in the state have sought a relief package from the central government in the form of soft loans and grants for them and students to tide over the current crisis. They wanted the Centre to announce a relief package to the technical education sector as it had done for the industrial sector.
Representatives of Association of Managements of Aided Polytechnic Colleges, Tamil Nadu, in a recent petition to the Centre, demanded financial relief of Rs 50,000 crore for the higher technical education institutions in the country.
While the institutions needed funds to meet salaries and operational expenditure, students needed funds to pay fee and buy devices such as desktops, laptops, or tablets to shift to online education mode, they said. C Valliappa, president of the association, said there was no mention of the education sector in the Rs 20 lakh crore relief package that was announced by the Centre for economic revival. In his letter to the prime minster, he said technical institutions were in a crisis as ‘the onset of pandemic and closure of education institutions have resulted in backlog of fee collection for the academic session 2019-20. As per government guidelines, fee for the ensuing semester cannot be collected’.
Pointing out that the total annual expenditure on running higher technical education institutions in the country was nearly Rs 50,000 crore, he said, “Of this, the expenditure of institutions in Tamil Nadu alone would come up to Rs 10,000 crore. This comprises salaries, maintenance cost, electricity bills, internet charges and costs for conducting online classes. We seek interest-free soft loans for paying salaries and grants to meet operational expenditure,” he told TOI.