Shiv Sena leader demands rollback of tripled management quota fees in engineering colleges

Protests have intensified over the tripled fee being charged from students admitted under the management quota in Maharashtra's engineering colleges. Shiv Sena secretary and advocate Vaibhav Maruti Thorat has demanded the fee be scrapped immediately and submitted a memorandum on the matter to Maharashtra Legislative Council deputy chairman Sachin Ahir.

In the memorandum, Thorat said the management quota fee being three times the regular fee is placing a heavy financial burden on students as well as their parents. He said the fee hike is limiting opportunities for talented students from families that are not financially well off.

Thorat also raised a question in the memorandum, asking how fair it is, in terms of equality in education, for one of two students studying in the same college, the same class and the same course to be charged the regular fee while the other is charged three times that amount.

The memorandum also said that everyone must get equal opportunity in education, but that it is wrong to place such a large financial burden on students merely because their route of admission is different. The decision is directly affecting the financial situation of students and their parents, which is also harming students' studies.

For this reason, advocate Vaibhav Thorat has demanded that this wrong decision to charge three times the fee under the management quota be scrapped immediately to give relief to students. He also demanded that the concerned officials issue the necessary orders on this at the earliest.

Deputy chairman Sachin Ahir assured that talks would be held with the concerned department on reducing the tripled management quota fee in engineering colleges and that a positive decision would be taken on scrapping the fee.