Engg colleges charge govt quota students higher fees


Chennai: Making a mockery of merit-based admissions made under the government quota, some selffinancing engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu are demanding astronomical sums as fees from students allotted BE/ BTech seats through the single window counselling.
As per the fee fixed by a committee headed by retired Madras high court Judge N V Balasubramanian, constituted under directions from the Supreme Court, students admitted to BE/ BTech courses under the government quota have to pay only Rs 40,000 as tuition fees. If the course is not accredited by the National Board of Accreditation, then they have to pay just Rs 32,500 per annum.
However, several students who turn up at the admission offices of some self-financing engineering colleges in different parts of Tamil Nadu with the government quota allotment order are finding to their dismay that the managements are demanding much higher fees. In some cases, the amount demanded is over Rs 80,000.
The colleges are collecting the excess fee in black and refusing to reflect the entire amount collected in the receipts issued to students. As a result, students are unable to lodge complaints with proof of the monetary exploitation. Secondly, they are unable to raise education loans through banks for the entire sum because the excess money is not accounted for.
“When I went to a college in Namakkal district where my son was allotted a BE (Information Technology) seat, the college demanded Rs 95,000 from us. The staff told us that Rs 75,000 was the fees and Rs 20,000 must be paid for books. But they offered a receipt for only Rs 40,000,” complained Hamsavardhan (name changed), a resident of Chennai. “There was no use protesting, because when we raised questions, the staff said we were free to lodge a complaint anywhere,” he added.
Similarly, many colleges located in and around Chennai too are demanding up to Rs 80,000 as fees from government quota students.
When this correspondent called up a couple of colleges introducing himself as the guardian of a government quota student and sought to know the fee structure, the staff refused to disclose it. “You can come to our admission cell with the allotment card and we will tell you the fees,” said a lady staff at a college in Namakkal. When the correspondent contacted another staff of the same college and argued that knowing the fee structure will help in arranging cash when the student is admitted, he said “You don’t worry about that. If you run short of cash here, we will give you a week’s time to arrange it.”
Tamil Nadu higher education principal secretary K Ganesan said it was illegal for colleges to collect excess fees than what has been fixed by the Judge Balasubramanian committee. “It is normal for colleges to collect fees towards caution deposit, transportation, sports activities and so on. But they cannot collect excess tuition fee without justification. Students and parents can pass on information about monetary exploitation to me, the commissioner for technical education or the government constituted monitoring committee and we will certainly take action,” he assured.