With the stream of complaints about colleges demanding extra fees continuing unabated despite several warnings, the government has asked universities to take the next step and start issuing notices to erring colleges.
A circular to this effect was issued to the Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) and the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) on Thursday.
This direction from the Higher Education Principal Secretary comes close on the heels of earlier warnings, which clearly were ineffective. Confirming this, VTU Vice-Chancellor H. Maheshappa said the university will start issuing notices to erring colleges from Friday.
Disaffiliation threat
“If their reply to the show cause notice is not satisfactory, the next step will be disaffiliation,” Mr. Maheshappa said.
It is learnt that the Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA), the intermediary for admissions to professional courses, has handed over receipts of capitation fee collected as proof.
Action will be taken under the Prohibition of Capitation Fee Act 1984.
The development will come as a relief to several students who have accused reputed colleges of demanding fees outside of what they have remitted to the KEA at the time of admissions.
Calling it a deposit
Even on Thursday, a candidate refused to pay the additional fee to a reputed college in Bommasandra when it demanded an additional Rs. 18,000 apart from the Rs. 52,000 already paid as fee.
“They called this ‘deposit for college activities’. We have filed a complaint with the KEA and have refused to take the seat. We are awaiting KEA’s response as the reporting date to colleges has been extended,” the student said.
The ‘extra fee’ menace has not spared the Consortium of Medical, Engineering and Dental Colleges of Karnataka (COMED-K) either. Anup, whose brother had got admission to a reputed engineering college in the city for Information Science and Technology under COMEDK, said the college demanded an extra Rs. 50,000.
‘We will take action’
COMED-K Executive Director A.S. Srikanth said this was the first such complaint the consortium had received unofficially. “Let the student file a complaint with the COMED-K. We will take action,” Mr. Srikanth said.
