HYDERABAD: In spite of the Supreme Court upholding the Telangana Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee’s authority in fixing the fees of private colleges, some engineering colleges are employing new tactics to arm-twist students into coughing up more than the amount prescribed.
Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Technology at Kokapet, for instance, is demanding the students of 2018-19 batch (second year) to pay Rs 1.60 lakh annually, which is Rs 60,000 more than the amount fixed by the TAFRC. Students have alleged that the college management has even threatened to detain all those who fail to pay the Rs 60,000.
Calling it a gross violation of the Apex Court’s month-old judgement, students of the MGIT staged a protest at the college on Friday.
“The management is forcing students to pay an additional Rs 60,000 per year even after the fee for the Block period (2016-19) has been fixed at Rs 1 lakh. They are also not happy with the fee fixed this year which is Rs 1.08 lakh,” said Nagati Narayana, president of Telangana Parents Association (TPA). For the block period, 2019-22 the college had proposed a fee of Rs 2.28 lakh but the TAFRC only allowed a 10 per cent hike.
Despite several calls to the chairman and principal of the college, the duo was unavailable for comment.
Meanwhile, students told Express that the management is citing a 2018 High Court order that allowed MGIT and CBIT to hike their fee.
“This was upturned by SC recently which upheld that HC was not a competent authority in matters of fees. However, MGIT has once more approached the HC seeking intervention. The matter will be heard on 29 July,” said P Murali a student. Supporting the students, TPA has said that it will stage a protest if the HC verdict is not in favour of the students.