Delhi: Minister vows to ban arbitrary school fee hikes; exposes previous AAP govt’s graft

New Delhi: Assuring action against arbitrary fee hike by private schools, Delhi Education Minister Ashish Sood on Monday challenged former minister Manish Sisodia to approach the CBI and get a probe ordered if he has proof to prove laxity on the part of the BJP government.

Addressing a press conference, Sood promised that the Rekha Gupta-led state government will get an investigation done into which private school illegally increased fees during the AAP rule.

He also released an email ID – ddeact1@gmail.com – on which parents will be able to lodge their complaints against arbitrary fee hikes by schools.

Sood criticised the previous AAP-led administration in Delhi for alleged irregularities in auditing private schools and not acting against them for extraneous reasons.

“Why did they not lodge any complaint against errant schools. We will get cases registered and within 10 days we will upload information on website about fee hikes allowed by the AAP government in the last 10 years,” said Sood.

“The previous government also indulged in irregularities in admission of EWS students. In some cases, five EWS students of one family were admitted to one school. The previous government has left a liability of Rs 115 crore towards fee payment of these students which was not paid to schools, forcing managements to harass EWS students,” he said.

The Minister said the Delhi School Education Act, 1973 mandates annual audits for all 1,677 private schools in the city. However, over the past decade, only about 75 schools were audited annually.

“The education department has no record of audit reports of any school related to the past 10 years,” he said.

He alleged a school caught committing a fraud of Rs 15 crore was allowed to raise fees by 15 per cent and 13 per cent in two phases.

Calling Sisodia a jobless politician, Sood said that he calls himself as the “father of education revolution” in the city but he allegedly blackmailed private schools and later allowed them to hike fees.

“Did the Arvind Kejriwal government frame any policy to keep managements of private schools under check?” he asked.

He said there is no record of cancellation of recognition of any school and accused the previous government of issuing notices to schools and settling matters “under the table” even as middle class parents suffered due to hike in salaries.

Earlier, in a video message, Leader of Opposition Atishi alleged that parents across the city were up in arms against the arbitrary fee hike by private schools and the BJP government was just a mute spectator.

Her party colleague Sisodia highlighted the “revolution” brought about in the education sector in the city over the past 10 days.

IANS