Telangana: Parents call government’s plea to vacate stay order on fee hike a half-hearted effort

HYDERABAD: Two-and-half months after the Hyderabad High Court stayed the government’s status quo on fee hike for the academic year, the latter finally filed a petition to get the stay vacated, albeit half-heartedly, allege parents. They pointed out that the government petitioner, while talking about profiteering by schools, failed to highlight the extent to which schools are indulging in it.

It may be recalled that Hyderabad Schools Parents Association (HSPA) had submitted the balance sheets of several prominent schools detailing the amount they were charging as fees, the amount that was being diverted from their accounts to their subsidiary and shell companies along with other lapses.

“It is good that they have filed a counter affidavit but there is a lot of meat that they could have added, for instance, proofs of profiteering. In addition, they should have also asked for an urgent hearing of the case which will be listed for April 23,” said Ashish Naredi, a member. Incidentally, court’s vacation starts from April 25 to May 31. Another lapse parents pointed out was that counter just mentions Prof Tirupathi Rao Committee report but does not attach it with the petition copy.

“If the governmentwas serious about controlling fee, it would have issued an ordinance and not a GO which has no legal sanction,” said Venkat Sainath Kadapa, joint secretary HSPA. The HSPA will now start work on its implead petition, through which they want to become a respondent in the cases.

Demand for immediate rollback of UGC norms raised

Demanding immediate rollback of latest UGC norms that shrunk number of teaching posts for reserved candidates, JAC of Teaching, Non-teaching and Students of SC/ST/OBC, UoH, on Thursday staged a protest. The members alleged that UGC proposal which MHRD accepted last month has proposed to consider a department as a unit rather than university as a whole while calculating reserved posts in teaching jobs