Rising fees across government engineering colleges in Karnataka have worried students, who held a protest against the hike at Freedom Park in Bengaluru today, December 22, demanding that it be revoked.

The protest, organised by AIDSO (All India Democratic Students' Organisation), began at about 10 am. "More than 100 engineering students participated in it," said Sithara HM, AIDSO office secretary. Addressing the gathering, Abhaya Diwakar, Bengaluru District President of AIDSO, expressing her outrage, said, "The government, which was supposed to provide free education to all, has gone into business," as mentioned in a press release shared by the organisation.

Sithara informed that a Rs 6,000 fee hike was announced recently for all the government colleges across the state. "Last year, the fee was hiked by Rs 10,000. This means that we have seen a hike of Rs 16,000 in the last two years. It is similar to looting money from the students," she said.

She added that students chose government engineering colleges because of comparatively lower fees. "A majority of the students in the government colleges belong to low-income and underprivileged backgrounds. A continuous increase in fees will be highly problematic for them. If this continues, meritorious students from such backgrounds will be deprived of quality education," the office secretary said.

Sashank, a student from Government Sri Krishna Rajendra Silver Jubilee Technological Institute (SKSJTI), Bengaluru, agrees. He said, "Our parents are also worried about this. We are paying taxes on everything, so we expect subsidised education. But we have to face rapidly increasing fees instead."

"Now, the first-year fee is Rs 38,000. Last year, it was Rs 33,000. If we go back over the last two years, the fee was Rs 28,000. And the year before that, my seniors used to pay only Rs 18,000," he added.

AIDSO has demanded that education should be made free in government colleges. The students, on the other hand, are agitated. They said that if a stop is not put to the increasing hikes, they will be protesting again.