Errant pvt schools will face action for unfair fee hikes: Delhi CM Gupta

New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Tuesday warned private schools of harsh consequences if they increase fee arbitrarily and vowed to issue notices to managements of all institutions which have allegedly hiked fee in violation of rules.

“Schools indulging in illegal activities will have to face the music,” said CM Gupta, confirming that parents have been complaining about some schools’ high-handedness.

“We have been getting complaints from parents. This is for sure that no school has a right to harass students or effect an enormous fee hike,” she said, adding that there were rules and regulations for increasing fees.

Schools will have to respond to our notices and, if found guilty of irregularities, they will have to face the consequences, she said.

CM Gupta’s warning to Delhi’s private schools comes close on the heels of Education Minister Ashish Sood ordering an audit of 1,677 institutions in the city.

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

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.

Slamming the previous government’s inaction against errant schools, Sood asked: “Why did the AAP government not lodge any complaint against errant schools?”

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

“We will get cases registered and within 10 days we will upload information on our website about fee hikes allowed by the AAP government in the last 10 years,” said Sood.

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

Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva also assured parents that the Delhi government will strictly curb unfair fee hikes by private schools and order audits for all 1,650-plus private schools.

He alleged that former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, former Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj and ex-CM Atishi have been using social media to spread confusion and lies about fee hikes by private schools.

“The AAP leaders are relentlessly trying to build a false political narrative against the BJP in Delhi. When their propaganda failed on issues like the Women’s Prosperity Scheme, Ayushman Bharat, and power cuts, they have now taken up the school fee hike issue for political mileage – but they will not succeed,” he said.

IANS