School fee hike: Youth Akali Dal protests in Patiala

PATIALA: Seeking a reimbursement of the excessive fees charged by private schools from parents, the Youth Akali Dal (YAD) staged a protest near the private residence of chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh in Patiala on Monday.
The youth Akali leaders also served a three day ultimatum to the state government to resolve the issue to the satisfaction of the parents or be ready for a sustained agitation.
YAD workers led by its President Parambans Singh Romana were stopped from reaching the private residence of chief minister near YPS roundabout where they staged a protest.
They asked the district administration to patch them live with the CM or Patiala MP Preneet Kaur. Later, they handed over a memorandum to the district authorities stating that government should step in and ensure that parents were reimbursed the excessive fee charged by the private schools.
Speaking on the occasion, Romana took on the chief minister for his double speak and hypocrisy on the occasion. He said schools controlled by the chief minister’s family were extorting money from parents even as his government had announced that it would file a review petition against the high court verdict in favour of private school managements.
He said it was unfortunate that certain private schools in Punjab had extorted fee from parents even before the high court verdict. “This includes fee for sports, extracurricular activities and even boarding charges. If the chief minister is really serious about the plight of parents and does not want children to suffer he should direct the YPS management to return the fee immediately. Also compensating all private school managements on behalf of the government is completely justifiable during a time of pandemic in which the government returned Rs 675 crores to liquor contractors and gave a relief of more than a hundred crore to sand miners”.
Amidst slogans of No school, No fee and ‘Jabri Ugrai Nahi Chalegi’, YADpresident also demanded strict action against those guilty of threatening and filing of a complaint against parents of YPS, Mohali just because they questioned the school management why it was taking undue fee from them. He said the YAD would not allow the YPS management to indulge in extortion.
YAD secretary general Sarabjot Singh Sabi said they would continue an agitation to force the state government to pay the tuition and admission fee of all children whose parents’ financial status had been adversely affected by the Covid-19 lockdown for a six month period from April to September this year. He asked the government to prepare a list of all parents whose financial status had been affected by the lockdown and give fee on their behalf to the schools.