The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Engineering college demands Rs. 29,000 for laptop

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 22, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Engineering college demands Rs. 29,000 for laptop

Rasheed Kappan

Students have not been given the option of saying no to the computer

Manufacturers ready to supply laptop at Rs. 17,000
Students advised to approach the regulatory panel

BANGALORE: The seat selection for professional colleges in the State is still in its infancy. But the capitation fee menace is raising its head.

A Bangalore-based private aided engineering college has reportedly made the first move demanding an additional fee of Rs. 29,000 from students sent by the Common Entrance Test (CET) Cell. The college’s rationale: the money will be used to buy laptops, but the students will not have the choice to say no.

Refuses to pay

One of the CET candidates with an engineering rank in the range of 2,200 had to return without a seat when he refused to pay the extra amount.

The CET Cell issued him an admission card and he had paid the annual fee of Rs. 28,090 fixed by the Government according to its consensus agreement with the private college managements. Such candidates had to either pay up or forfeit their seat selected through a transparent counselling process.

Sources told The Hindu that the candidates were asked to pay an additional fee of Rs. 36,000, including the college fee of Rs. 7,000. The students were promised a laptop by the college. “This is atrocious. Middle class student s cannot afford that money. Has the Government given the college the liberty to collect such an amount,” asked a candidate’s well-wisher, who had sponsored the education of many students from poor families.

Cheaper

She had done her own little research and discovered that some laptop manufacturers were ready to supply the machines at a subsidised rate of Rs. 17,000 for students. “I am ready to sponsor some more students. But this new demand is too much for me,” she told this newspaper on condition of anonymity.

The affected students proposed to complain to the CET Cell. The Hindu got in touch with the One-Man Regulatory Committee overseeing professional college admissions with former Bangalore University Vice-Chancellor N.R. Shetty as its sole member.

Dr. Shetty wanted the students to report the matter to the committee. “We will talk to the college concerned to sort out the matter. If they don’t do so, we will issue a notice,” he said. The candidates will have to draft a complaint and personally hand it over to the Under Secretary posted for the task at the CET Cell premises.

Flood of complaints

In the past, the Venkataraman Admission Committee and different Fee Fixation Committees had dealt with a flood of complaints from students, most of whom faced capitation fee-related problems.

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