Date:22/02/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/02/22/stories/2007022214240400.htm

Karnataka - Bangalore

SC/ST students caught in a cleft stick over course fees

B.S. Ramesh

Students blame the two fee fixations panels and Government for the situation

BANGALORE: Scores of students belonging to the Scheduled Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) and studying in private professional colleges are now caught up in a fresh row over payment of fees. The cause: the difference in fees fixed for professional courses by the Murgod and Rangavittalachar fee fixation committees.

The students had only on December 8 heaved a sigh of relief when the State Government issued a notification to reimburse in toto the fees of SC and ST students allotted seats in graduate, postgraduate and professional courses by the CET Cell.

The notification, however, has not solved the woes of these students. Almost all of them are now in an unenviable position of having to cough up fees on the higher side. If the students fail to pay the fees being demanded by the managements of institutions imparting graduate and postgraduate education, they are unlikely to be allowed to take the examinations.

The students blame the two fee fixations committees and the State Government for the situation in which they have been placed.

They say that the first fee fixation committee headed by A.B. Murgod had fixed fees for the professional courses. Subsequently, Rangavittalachar, who headed the committee, revised the fees upwards.

The students say that the difference between the fees fixed by the Murgod Committee and the Rangavittalachar Committee is too huge for them to bear on their own. They say requests to the State Government to reimburse the difference in the fees have not been favourably considered so far.

The students, many of whom joined PG professional courses in 2004, are worried as the managements are insisting that they pay the difference in fees before they are allowed to take up the examination. Citing an example, the students say that the Murgod Committee had fixed Rs. 2,22,750 as fees for PG course in dentistry which was revised by the Rangavittalachar to Rs. 3.76 lakh.

The students are sore that the Government has so far not been responsive to their demands.

Legal experts opine that the Government is bound to pay the difference in the fee structure as it had not challenged the fees fixed by Rangavittalachar panel.