“We are with you and hope the government lends us support.” This was how hundreds of motorists boosted the morale of volunteers of Hyderabad Schools Parents’ Association (HSPA) who started a ‘Sticker Campaign’ against ‘fee loot’ by private schools, at the busy Panjagutta crossroads on Saturday morning.
Hundreds of parents descended on Panjagutta and sought permission from the motorists to stick the stickers on vehicles with a message for the Chief Minister, K. Chandrasekhar Rao, to stop the school fee loot. The commuters in cars, auto-rickshaws and buses readily agreed for the same.
They agreed partly because their permission was sought by the parents unlike political party activists or marketing agents who just stick the posters as they wish. In fact, the commuters, most of whom also have school-going children, asked for additional stickers to paste them on their other vehicles.
Postcard campaign
The stickers had two slogans — “CM Sir Please Regulate School Fees” and “CM Sir, Please Stop the #SchoolFeeLoot”. Close to 3,000 stickers were stuck on four wheelers across the city as part of the campaign. The sticker campaign is a follow-up protest programme after the postcard campaign wherein thousands of postcards were sent to the Chief Minister and the Prime Minister.
“We are happy with the positive response that we received from people to our fight and the HSPA will not let the government rest till a new law is brought in to regulate school fees. We find it difficult to understand how and why the Chief Minister is silent on this issue?” asked Hirdesh Gupta, secretary of HSPA.
Report submission
“We will see how long the Chief Minister remains silent after seeing his name stuck behind so many vehicles,” said Pavan Kumar Reddy, the lead organiser of the campaign. The HSPA lamented the delay in submission of the final report by Prof. Tirupathi Rao Committee on school fees. It has been demanding that the government immediately bring in an Ordinance to set up District Fee Regulatory Committees (DFRCs) to regulate school fees.
It also wants fee hike for 2017-18 be stayed till such an Ordinance is passed.
The parents said police denied permission for the sticker campaign, but they went ahead with the programme in a peaceful manner, without causing any hindrance to vehicular traffic.
