Hyderabad
Parents held a dharna on Monday in front of the School Education Directorate demanding an end to the extortion of fees in private schools in the state. They said that the extortion of fees was higher in Telangana than in all other states and demanded immediate implementation of the Fee Regulation Act.
Nagati Narayana, state president of the Telangana Parents' Association, and Santosh Kumar, state president of the TS TCEA, said the leaders, who had said they would control corporate educational institutions during the Telangana agitation has forgotten that for eight years. They lamented that corporate and private educational institutions were increasing fees by 20–30% annually and the government is not controlling them.
"The Right to Education Act requires that 25% of seats in corporate and private educational institutions be allocated to the poor. It is not implemented. Parents could not bear the burden of the fees and were pawning their jewelry and selling the assets. Fee control laws in Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Delhi, Rajasthan, Gujarat, and other states are effective. Such laws should be enacted in Telangana," they demanded.
They also demanded that the fees should be fixed once in every three years just as in Higher Education and the recommendations of the Tirupati Rao Committee to increase the fees by 10% per annum should be rejected,