The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has called for a review of the school fees fixed by the Private Schools Fee Determination Committee headed by Justice Raviraja Pandian.
The increase was too steep, CPI (M) State secretary G. Ramakrishnan told reporters here on Saturday. “For instance, the fee for Class XI in a private school in Chennai has gone up from Rs.11,000 to Rs.25,000.”
The demand for the review was one of the resolutions moved at the party's two-day State Committee meeting held here on Friday and Saturday. If there were rules that prevented the government from revising the rates immediately, a special law must be enacted to provide for the revision, the resolution said.
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Mr. Ramakrishnan alleged that some schools had collected fees even before the new rates were made public. If students had paid more than what the committee had fixed, the excess fee collected must be refunded.
Another resolution stated that the government should implement the uniform syllabus scheme in total. The CPI (M) was opposed to the All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam government's decision to put it on hold.
Another resolution called for the revival of direct elections to the posts of Mayor, Municipal Chairman and Town Panchayat president. These were done away with after the 2006 elections. The heads of these local bodies were not elected by the people but by councillors of local bodies.
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In the elections to the local bodies later this year, people must directly elect the heads of local bodies, right from the village panchayat to the city corporation.
Mr. Ramakrishnan said that the meeting also resolved to carry out a campaign across the State, as part of a national-level movement against corruption.
“The State Committee also discussed the political situation after the Assembly elections,” he said.