District organising secretary of the Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (DSS) Ramesh Kotian on Friday said that the State Government should suspend the principal of the Udupi Government Girls' Pre-University College, Suresh Thunga, for taking additional fees from poor students.
Mr. Kotian told presspersons here that an inquiry conducted by the Deputy Director (Administration) of the Pre-University Education Department, R. Mahadevappa, revealed that Mr. Thunga had been accepting “additional fee” of Rs. 1,000 from arts and commerce students and Rs. 1,200 from science students.
Mr. Thunga had stated that the “additional fee” was taken with the permission of the college development committee. The money collected was used to give honorariums to lecturers as the college faced staff shortage. It was also used for payment of telephone and electricity bills.
Mr. Kotian said that the inquiry report of Mr. Mahadevappa made it clear that only receipt books for acceptance of this “additional fee” from students for 2010-11 were available.
The report stated that Mr. Thunga's statement that receipt books detailing acceptance of “additional fee” in previous academic years were stolen led to suspicion.
The report suggested that the auditors of Directorate of Pre-University Education could conduct a detailed investigation of the “additional fee” received after Mr. Thunga took charge as the principal of the college.
