State govt fails to act on Dange committee report on fee restructuring
After a conflict ensued between students, parents and the school and college administration over the payment of fees last year, the state government appointed the J P Dange committee to restructure the fees
After a conflict ensued between students, parents and the school and college administration over the payment of fees last year, the state government appointed the J P Dange committee to restructure the fees. It was an attempt to review the existing fee structure of colleges in the state, however, the recommendations have not been considered by the state government.
The committee submitted its report last year in September, as students were demanding to reduce gymkhana, library, canteen and other expenses from the fees.
The recommendations by the committee have neither been considered nor made public. Student organisations are now demanding to immediately take action on it as a large number of students are not taking admission for this academic year due to high fees.
“As schools and colleges are closed for the last year, various infrastructural things like the library, laboratory, gymkhana, canteen and many other things are not being used by students. However, most colleges have not waived off these fees. Students from rural parts of the state are already suffering financially and on top of that paying such high fees is not possible for them. So, we were repeatedly demanding to review the fee structure, and accordingly, this committee was formed, they submitted their report in September last year and still, nothing has been done,” said Amar Ekad, president of Cops students’ organisation, Maharashtra.
According to Ekad, there are a large number of students who are not taking admission for their desired course just because of the high fees.
“The committee report should be made public, and we have the right to know what recommendations have been given, and why the implementation is delayed. We are continuously following up on this issue and until students get justice from the hiked fees we will not stop our fight,” he added.
Kedar Jamane, a student said, “I wanted to take admission for MBA in finance this year, but when I approached the desired college, the fees were too high. I cannot afford the fees and lectures will be online until the government allows offline lectures. So why should we pay more fees for college infrastructure if we are not going to use it? At least for this year, there should be some concession given to students over fees.”
Dhanraj Mane, director of state higher education department said, “We have not yet received any directives about it, once we get any order it will be worked upon accordingly.”