Mumbai: The State Directorate of Higher Education(DHE) has instructed all 3140 non-governmental unaided and permanently unaided colleges in Maharashtra to provide details about the pool of student caution money left behind with these institutes by February 20, 2023.
This development comes after a student group wrote to the Department of Higher and Technical education asking for transparency with regard to the student caution money, as reported by The Free Press Journal in January.
Students make these deposits while enrolling in the college as a security against the facilities which they will use in the coming years. The pupils are entitled to get back their ‘caution money’ once they pass out. Several instances of students not claiming their deposits or not being aware of their right to do so have led to the piling up of this large sum with private colleges.
Presently there is no government resolution dictating the expenditure of this unclaimed sum, making it unclear how the money is being used. The latest circular issued by the DHE Joint Director, Dr. Prakash Bachhav, has asked the unaided colleges to submit the amount of unclaimed caution money left with the colleges in the academic year 2021-2022. “The further course of action will be determined after we get this information from the colleges,” said Dr. Bachhav while talking to The FPJ on Wednesday.
“The caution amount is student money after all and it is the student’s right to know what happens with it if they don’t get it back,” said Amar Ekad, President of the Cops student organisation.
Several students are not well informed of their right to collect the money back and colleges are not taking any steps to ensure the same. “From what I know, our batch was supposed to collect the deposit money by October 2022. I kept forgetting and never went back for it and the deadline went past me. I took the process lightly because the amount was minimal, but at the same time, the college was very covert about the reimbursement,” said a student from a self-financed course at St Xavier’s College, Mumbai.
