Over 1,000 B Tech students and their parents staged a dharna at Vasavi College of Engineering in Ibhrahimbagh demanding a rollback of fee hike to the tune of Rs 63,000 per year for 2016-17 batch, on Monday.
The parents of second-year students gave a protest call after the college management told them that their kids would not be allowed to appear for final exams due next month unless they paid a fee of Rs 1.6 lakh annually. The college did not accept the examination fee of these students.
While the actual fee is Rs 97,000 a year, the management has been arm-twisting the students into paying an additional fee of Rs 63,000, which is Rs 2.5 lakh for the entire course duration, despite the matter being sub judice. “We were told that the annual fee would be Rs 97,000 at the time of admission. But months later, they said the fee has been increased and we can’t write exams till we pay it,” said Preeti a second-year student, whose father is a government school teacher.
Meanwhile, another student Sripal Reddy from Nizamabad who participated in the protest said the amount was not small and does not justify the services provided by the college. “A lot of students from poor, SC and ST backgrounds have been facing trouble. It is not a small amount,” said the student, who participated in the Asia Junior Cricket Championship in Sri Lanka. “The college refused to give me attendance during the period. As a result, my attendance went down and I had to pay condonation fee,” said Sripal. The protest that was started by over 100 parents soon turned into a massive one with students boycotting classes and raising slogans for the rollback of the fee hike. Bowing to the pressure from parents and students, the management has decided to allow students to appear for final exams for now.
“As they have not said that they will not hike the fees, we assume they will rake up the issue again in the next academic year,” said N Marayana, president of Telangana Parents Association.An official from the college told Express that the management has agreed to the demands of the parents and “students will be allowed to write their examinations without pressure of any kind”.
Meanwhile, Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee have called the attempt to extract an additional fee from students “illegal”. A senior official of the regulatory body said as a counter-appeal has already been filed, the college cannot levy the additional fee.
