Mumbai: The Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) has raised an alarm about professional colleges in Maharashtra charging excess fees from students, and even denying them admission for refusing to pay the additional amount.
In a meeting held in March, details of which were made public recently, the authority observed that, in the last one year, there has been a spurt in complaints about colleges demanding more fees than the amount approved by FRA. Over 20 grievances are from students seeking admission to Ayurveda colleges alone, in regular as well as institutional quotas. In a particularly worrying instance, the son of a rickshaw driver was allegedly denied admission by an overcharging Ayurveda college in Ahmednagar. He ended up shelving his medical dreams and working as a delivery boy for Swiggy.
As per the minutes of an FRA meeting, “The institutes are denying admission by making exorbitant demands for deposit and the payment of hostel mess charges, though such facilities are optional. Sometimes, the students are forced to pay the huge amount as association and admission fees. Although the charge under institutional quota cannot be more than three times the regular fees, there are complaints of demands of five times the regular fees. Some of the institutes demand the fees of the entire course though there is a bar under section 14 (5) of the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admissions and Fees) Act, 2015, to make such demands.
At the meeting, the authority heard four complaints of excess demand by health science institutes. These include Dhaneshwari Ayurveda Medical College at Aurangabad and Matoshri Ayurvedic College at Nashik, who are accused of asking for five times the maximum permitted fees. Matoshri Ayurvedic College at Ahmednagar allegedly demanded Rs4.5 lakh from the rickshaw driver’s son against the actual fees of Rs1.65 lakh. The Ahmednagar and Aurangabad institutes have denied the allegations.
FRA believes that since these grievances arise at the stage of admission, they need to be addressed by the State Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell, which is responsible for carrying out the admission process for professional colleges. The authority pointed out it can only intervene in the grievances of ‘stakeholders’, which include students who have already secured admissions, and their parents.
FRA suggested that the cell evolves a mechanism for centralised fee payment, instead of having the students pay directly to the college, so as to avoid cancellation of admission on the pretext of non-payment of fees.
The authority also recommended that students should get reasonable time to pay the fees online to the extent mentioned in the letter of allotment. On payment of the amount and uploading a screenshot of the payment receipt, the CET cell may consider to confirm the admission of such student, it suggested.
Mahendra Warbhuvan, the CET cell commissioner, however, said that he is yet to receive these suggestions from FRA. “We will definitely consider this proposal when it comes,” he said.
