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Rajasthan engineering students block road to protest fee hike
Higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari had promised students that their fee will be reduced to a reasonable level.
Hundreds of students of Ajmer government girls engineering college on Saturday staged road blockade protesting against the high fee structure for the Bachelor of Technology courses in the institute.
The students shouted slogans the government and threatened that if their demand of reducing the fee was not met, they will campaign against the BJP in the coming assembly and Lok Sabha elections.
Students walked out of their classes and blocked the Ajmer-Nasirabad road for more than two hours. Police reached the spot and convinced the girl students to lift the blockade.
Taking a dig against Prime Minister’s slogan of “Beti Bachao aur Beti Padhao (save girl and educate girl)”, Neerja Sharma, a second year B.Tech student said:” The slogan should be changed to ‘save girl and burden her family with more than 6 lakh rupees by the time she passes out of college.”
More than 80% of girls studying in college on education loan as their parents are not rich enough pay ₹ 90,000 for course fee and other expenses every year, said Sujata Gupta, another student.
“By the time we pass out of the college after five years, each girl is under a debt of ₹5 to 6 lakh, “ she said.
The fee for the B.Tech courses was increased by more than ten times from ₹8,000 every year when the college from the new academy session on April 30, 2007, a student, who did not want to be named, said.
State higher education minister Kiran Maheshwari during a visit to the college six months back, promised the students that their fee will be reduced to a reasonable level so that poor students do not find it hard to pay the fees while pursuing professional courses, the student said.
It is unfortunate that the government backed off from its promise when it started the college to give quality and affordable technical education to girls, a senior faculty member at the college, who did not wish to be named, said.
“At the time of opening of college chief minister Vasundhara Raje promised that the government will take care of parents of girls who could not afford to educate their daughters, but the government has failed to keep its promise,” the faculty member said, adding that fee is very high and is out of reach of poor students.
