FRA gives temporary relief to students of Mira Road management institute regarding fees

The state Fee Regulatory Authority (FRA) has asked students of a suburban management college to not pay any fee above the approved amount until the matter regarding illegal collection of fees by the institute is resolved by the authority.

In a temporary relief to management studies students of NL Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research, Mira Road who had alleged illegal collection of fee by the institute, the FRA issued a notification on Thursday stating, “It is clarified that students in 2019-20 batch are not required to pay any amount, on any count, more than whatever approved by the FRA till the issue is decided by the FRA.” HT has reviewed the notification.

Seema Saini, chief executive officer and administrative head of NL Dalmia Institute of Management Studies and Research, was unavailable for a comment.

FRA had approved an annual fee of ₹1.87 lakh for the academic year 2019-20. Several students from the 2019-20 batch had earlier written to FRA complaining that the institute was charging almost ₹2.3 lakh over and above what was approved by the regulatory body. Based on the complaints, FRA, which regulates fees of all professional courses offered by colleges in Maharashtra, had sought a response from the college.

“The college has admitted that for the value-added course, they (the institute) are collecting an extra fee from students. The entitlement to collect extra fees is under consideration of FRA,” the body said in its notification.

Meanwhile, students alleged they were being forced to withdraw their complaints.

“The institute is forcing us to sign letters to FRA withdrawing our complaints unconditionally. We have been threatened with consequences in our placement drive. We don’t know what to do anymore,” said a student, on the condition of anonymity.