Hyderabad: The Telangana state government has made it mandatory for students to submit last seven years’ schooling records to claim fee reimbursement and scholarships.

This will be applicable with immediate effect, from the ongoing academic year 2014-15.

The government has allowed online submission of applications on the “e-Pass” website and students have to upload their schooling records to be eligible to claim the benefits, along with other documents like income and caste certificates.

Deputy CM Kadiam Srihari informed the Assembly on Thursday that only students who pursued schooling in TS for a maximum period out of seven years would be extended the benefit as per Article 371 (D) of the Constitution to determine “local status”.

Deputy Chief Minister Kadiam Srihari who is also the higher education minister for Telangana, said that Telangana is committed to implement the fee reimbursement scheme.

“As per norms in accordance with the Presidential Order issued under Article 371 (D) of the Constitution to determine the local and non-local status of applicants in education and employment opportunities, the school record of last seven years will be taken into consideration, and wherever a student has pursued education for a longer duration out of this period, he or she will be considered the local of that state,” he said.

Mr Srihari reiterated that the TS government was committed to implementing the fee reimbursement scheme despite severe financial implications on the state exchequer and had no plans of scrapping the scheme in future.

“The government has released Rs 1,790 crore fee arrears of students that were accrued in the undivided Andhra Pradesh during the last four years. This shows the sincerity and commitment of the TRS government towards funding the education of the poor and needy. For the ongoing academic year 2014-15 too, we have launched an online application system recently for which over 40,000 students have already applied. We have made necessary allocations in the budget to extend the benefit to over 16.57 lakh students this year,” he added.