Diploma Students Demanded To Pay Additional Fee

The lateral entry of the diploma students in to engineering courses through Common Entrance Test (CET) started on Thursday. The diploma students were shocked, when college managements asked to pay additional fee to be paid to the college.

Around 400 students turned up to the helpline centre in National Institute of Technology, Suratkal to handover their demand draft and gain entry into the second year engineering courses. The results of the online counseling process were announced on Wednesday.

Karnataka Examinations Authority (KEA) announced the fee structure for the diploma students, that Rs. 38,090 for private college and Rs. 18,090 for government aided colleges. The KEA officials were also shocked about to pay additional fee.

Students said that, every college had sought extra money as "library fee" "canteen fee" and so on. A college om Ujire, they charged Rs. 13.000, while even aided colleges in bangalore were charging Rs. 19,000, which is double of what KEA prescribed in their website.

For Example, Mangalore Institute of Technology and Engineering in Moodbidri charged Rs. 25,000 as library fee, wifi fee, canteen fee, lab fee among others.

The MITE College administrative said, "Every college takes a fee based on how much they have spent on the buildings, labs, hiring good faculty, Every year, the students has to pay this much fee over and above the Government fixed fee".

Students were caught unawares when they want to the join the college immediately after the admissions, as the deadline fro reporting in the colleges were Oct 01. Some of the students who did not have additional amount to pay, returned to the helpline centre to lodge their complaint.

Suresh Tunga, Nodal Officer of KEA, confirmed receiving numerous complaints by students and parents about this additional fee. "Even SC and ST students who don't have to pay any amount as processing fee to KEA. Are being charged by private college, But we're helpless. We can direct them to lodge an official complaint, but most patents and students do not want to take as it would disrupt their child future," he said.

H. Siddaiah, Principal Secretary of Higher Education told that any fee charged by colleges apart from the money given to KEA on the day of admissions was "not legal". "The fee structure is fixed by the government and colleges cannot charge mire than this", he said.

He added that if students faced harassment or were made pay extra fro their fee, they should register their complaint with KEA or Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU).