Plaint against DIEO after Avinash College justifies fee hike

Hyderabad: A complaint has been filed against Director of Intermediate Education Officer (DIEO), Rangareddy Diestrict to Telangana State Board of Intermediate Education (TSBIE).

Activist Vijay Gopal has knocked the door of Secretary, TSBIE after the Director of Intermediate Education Officer (DIEO) of Rangareddy district failed to take action against Avinash College of Commerce, LB Nagar, over arbitrary fee hike.

On June 19, Gopal approached TSBIE Secretary and complained against the DIEO for forwarding the reply of Avinash College of Commerce without any action taken report.

“The college is collecting higher tuition fee as against prescribed (Rs 1760 per annum. I would request your help in sharing the findings and action taken report as this college management is exploiting thousands of students with the illegal fee,” Gopal wrote to DIEO.

Later, DIEO sent a show-cause notice to Avinash College of Commerce.

In its reply, the college justified the fee structure saying the government colleges receive funds and grants while not even a single rupee is granted to unaided private colleges.

“For a private un-aided Junior college, not even a single rupee is granted by the state government or some other authority either towards the Rental Costs or Staff Salaries, We have to bear 100 percent cost. Imposing a restriction on the Private Junior Colleges to collect only Rs 1760 as Fees despite giving so many value-added facilities to the students for an academic year is impractical, unjustifiable and unreasonable,” said Avinash Brahmadevara, Chairman.

The college noted that they will not be able to sustain given the fee structure as minimal as Rs 1760 per student per academic year. Even if few colleges run, they would not be able to impart quality education, Avinash said.

After the reply, the Rangareddy District officer closed the Complaint and forwarded the reply to Gopal. “College Management did not give details of their fee structure for each intermediate course. It gave hypothetical responses to the contention raised and never answered the moot point,” said Gopal.

He regretted that the DIEO did not share his remarks and simply forwarded the response from college. "This is just not expected from a Public Servant who is supposed to ensure the laws are implemented,” said Gopal.

He asked the Secretary TSBIE to share the action taken report about the fee collected and courses offered by the college. “This issue concerns millions of students. Please address it as quickly as possible and make arrangements to refund the excess fee collected from parents,” said Gopal.