CBIT students give vent to fee hike ire

Hyderabad: Tension prevailed when scores of students of Chaitanya Bharati Institute of Technology (CBIT) staged a protest at Gandipet near here on Wednesday to protest against the college management for hiking the fee steeply. The protest brought the vehicular traffic to a halt at Gandipet in Rangareddy district. Trouble began after the students were given a rude shock by the college authorities to pay the additional Rs 86,000. In addition, the protesting students said they were asked to pay the hiked fee for the first year, too.

Calling the college action arbitrary, the students staged a sit-in protest on the road bringing the traffic to a grinding halt giving police a tough time to clear the traffic. However, after much persuasion the protesters shifted the venue of the protest to the college premises where they persisted with agitation According to the students, the current annual fee for the BTech was Rs 1.13 lakh. However, the college authorities asked the students to pay Rs 2 lakh for the current as well as at the hiked rate for the years which they had already completed.

This comes to about Rs 1.75 lakh additional burden on each of the students, they pointed out Denying that they had executed affidavits agreeing to pay the fee at the hiked rates, the students said they were forced to sign threatening that they would not be issued hall tickets and allow them to attend examinations unless they signed the affidavits. Further, they were not informed about the quantum of the proposed hike at the time of signing the affidavits, they alleged. Terming the fee hike as unjust and they would not be in a position to pay, they demanded a rollback of the hiked fee.

However, denying the allegations the college principal P Ravindra Reddy said as per the fee fixed earlier the students were asked to pay Rs 1.13 lakh. However, the college had approached the State High Court for a hike as it had to provide the necessary infrastructure for conducting the courses. Accordingly, the court had allowed them to hike the fee to Rs 2 lakh.

It was against this backdrop that the students who had already agreed and signed an affidavit were asked to pay the hiked fee. There were some who had not signed the affidavits, and gave a representation that they would not be in a position to pay due to their financial inability.

The issue is being under consideration of the management. Following the protests of the students, the principal said he would forward to the management, if the students submitted any representation for the reduction of the fee hiked, he added.