Karnataka govt hikes BTech fees once again: AIDSO demands to withdraw decision

NEW DELHI: The Karnataka government has again increased in engineering course fees by Rs 5,000 for this academic year. Last year, the state government hiked fees by Rs 10,000. Calling it an anti-student move by the government All India Democratic Students' Organisation (AIDSO) said it is a “reflection to open commercialisation advocated by the government”.

Condemning the state government’s decision to hike fees for BTech courses for the second consecutive year, the students organisation said, “This year, without giving any notice, the government has gone ahead and increased the fees in an undemocratic way!”

“On the one hand students are reeling under unprecedented economic crisis, on the other hand, government is constantly either increasing the fees or reducing scholarship amount. This has resulted in gradual decrease of students opting higher education.” AIDSO said.

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“If Government Engineering fees keeps increasing every year, lakhs of students belonging to poor and lower middle class families, must let go of their dream to become engineers,” it added.

AIDSO Karnataka State Committee demanded the state government to immediately withdraw fees hike and revoke it's policy of increasing fees every academic year.

Karnataka Higher Education Minister CN Ashwathnarayan announced to increase the BTech fees by 10 percent. However, the Karnataka private engineering college fees remained unchanged. However, a limit of Rs 20,000 fixed for the 'other fees'.

In April this year, the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) has recommended a revised fee structure for tuition fees charged by engineering and technical institutes. The council had proposed fixing the minimum annual fee for BTech engineering courses at Rs 79,000 and the maximum fee up to Rs 1.89 lakh.