PUDUCHERRY: The fee committee headed by Justice S Rajeswaran was on Friday flooded with more than 10 complaints of overcharging of fee by medical, engineering and dental colleges, from Congress MLA and former education minister K Lakshminarayanan, students and parents associations and social activists.
Raising the issue before Justice Rajeswaran at Kamaraj Education complex, Lakshminarayanan contended that excessive fee was being charged by private medical colleges over and above the fee fixed by the committee. The fixation of fee has no relevance and management of the colleges were not abiding by the spirit of the Supreme Court judgement. Colleges were not only overcharging under the pretext of fund for college development, but also were charging capitation fee. The surplus fund collected should not exceed 15 per cent of the tuition fee fixed by fee committee. Though the MBBS course is for a period of four-and-a-half years, several colleges were charging fee for five-and-a-half years by including the period of internship, he said. He further sought a clarification on the fee fixation for Deemed Universities not falling under the purview of Fee Committee.
Puducherry Students and Parents Welfare Association president V Balasubramanian raising the same issue said that some colleges were charging heavy penalty for late fee. Moreover, colleges were collecting twice and thrice the amount of fee fixed by the committee, he said.