HYDERABAD: Fee hike in Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology, Ghatkesar, has come back to haunt parents and students once again. Parents allege that the college management is harassing them to cough up an additional fee of Rs 40,000 per year, despite the matter being in courts. Neither has a fresh circular been issued by the JNTUH nor has Telangana Admission and Fee Regulatory Committee (TAFRC) endorsed the hike.
This time, however, the college adopted a novel method to extract additional fee in advance -- coordinators from the college went to individual student’s home and demanded the fee be paid immediately.
When shocked and harried parents protested and said they did not have enough cash handy, they were offered the option to pay via a post-dated check.
A group of 70 parents who have come together to form Sreenidhi Institute of Science and Technology’s parents' association on Wednesday staged a dharna outside the college along with the third and final year students boycotting classes and lending their support from within the college premises.
“There are no rules that allow colleges to go to the residence of students to collect fee. Several parents were roughed up too by the people who came to collect the fee. Our children are harassed by college, their hall tickets are withheld until the last minute before examination. All this is being done just for money,” said G Srinivas, president of the association.
He added that if on Friday the management does not meet the parents, they will have an indefinite protest.
Srinivas Reddy, one the parents who had to face the fee collection squads at his house, recalls receiving several phone calls and texts prior to the visit. “This is the first time the college has stooped so low. They said they were coordinators of the college but could have have been goons, who knows. We tried to raise the matter with JNTU, TFRC and government but no one came to our rescue and treated us like football,” said the father of a III year student.
‘Fee hiked after HC’s order’
The college management has said that fee was raised only after the interim order was issued by the HC and that it was informed to students in an undertaking at the time of admission that once the order came fee would be hiked. “We send our people to students’ homes not just for fee collection but also to inform parents about the academic progress and even attendance of the children. It is a part of our strategy,” said K Sumanth, academic head, SIST.
Students body demand rollback of no detention policy in state-run schools
Hyderabad: A year after the state decided to continue with the policy of not detaining students even if they fail examinations, activists are still protesting and trying to convince the government to reintroduce the pass-fail system in state-run schools. A group of 100 students from the AIDSO staged a dharna at the Directorate of School Education on Wednesday. “We are demanding reintroduction of the pass-fail system in the government schools because its absence has deteriorated the education system. Class V students can’t read simple sentences and those of VIII and IX can’t solve simple arithmetic problems,” said secretary of AIDSO R Gangadhar.