There are no signs of the stand off between the engineering colleges and the government on fee reimbursement being abated as the college managements have threatened to go ahead with the proposed strike from February 16 if the fee arrears are not released immediately.

After the Supreme Court chided the state government for the delay on fee reimbursement and refused to give another three months time, the college managements are not in a mood to heed to the request of the government for more time for making the payments.

Nimmatoori Ramesh, a representative of the association of the engineering colleges told media persons today that the colleges have refused to take bank loans on government’s counter guarantee as they were not ready to pay the interests. “We don’t want to wait for another three months as we have waited long and we want immediate payments,” he said. The managements have also suggested that the government should allot Rs.7000 Cr for fee reimbursement in the ensuing budget as against usual Rs.4000 Cr.

Mr A. Krishna reddy, another representative of the association said the government can release 50 per cent of the funds immediately. “The balance can come by April first week,” he said.

Meanwhile, the government said on Monday that they would not be able to release funds with in a week despite SC order and asked the managements to wait till the end of February.