Students admitted to government and government-aided autonomous engineering institutes will be given a fee waiver of Rs 16,250, announced Uday Samant, state higher and technical education minister on Thursday. This fee waiver of 25 per cent approximately will benefit around 20,000 engineering students in Maharashtra.
This decision has been taken considering the financial crisis faced by students and their parents due to lockdown necessitated on account of the COVID-19 pandemic. Samant said, "Students admitted to government and government-aided autonomous engineering institutes have to pay additional fees apart from tuition fees every year."
He added, "As students have not attended offline lectures in college this year due to the pandemic, they have not used facilities such as the library and gymkhana. Hence, students should not be charged these additional fees."
Samant further said, "Considering the COVID-19 pandemic, Rs 16,250 will be waived off from the additional fees for students who are admitted in government and government-aided autonomous engineering institutes. This waiver of 25 per cent approximately will reduce the financial burden and benefit over 20,000 engineering students in the state."
In response to the fee waiver, students said they are relieved, as the fees of government engineering courses are quite high. Faiz Sultan, a second year engineering student said, "My fees is approximately Rs 65,000 to Rs 75,000 per academic year. This waiver will help students, as we are not using facilities such as laboratories, library, gym, playground and canteen services."
