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The first- and second-year students of BTech and other technical courses at the Institute of Technology,Nirma University,continued their agitation against the hike in annual tuition fee for the second day on Tuesday.
More than 200 students from different courses staged a dharna outside the university campus,demanding that the hike be withdrawn.
The university has increased the fee from Rs 13,000 to Rs 55,000 and asked the students to pay the difference of amount of the previous years as arrears.
However,there is no increase in fee for the third- and fourth-year students.
The students alleged that the management had forcible procured them in writing at the time of admission that they would have to pay the difference in case of any increase in tuition fee in future.
A senior university official said the fee had been hiked as decided by the Fee Regulatory Committee(FRC) of the state government. He said the university had demanded the hike to Rs 1.57 lakh for B Tech and B Pharma courses two years ago but the FRC fixed it at Rs 73,000.
The university then moved the Gujarat High Court seeking hike in tuition fee,due to increase in expenditure in teachers salary and other infrastructure. But the high court rejected their plea. Later,the Supreme court referred the matter to the FRC,which decided the annual fee.
While Nirma Universitys executive registrar D P Chhaya could not be contacted despite repeated efforts,Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad representative Ravi Desai,who is spearheading the agitation,said the university had requested them to suspend the agitation till July 26 by when the management would take a decision on the students demand.
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