Maharashtra: Education minister Chandrakant Patil to probe fees discrepancies, teachers insist on punitive action

PUNE: Higher and technical education minister Chandrakant Patil's decision to visit private colleges to understand the discrepancies in the expenditure information sent by authorities and the fees approved by the Fee Regulation Authority (FRA) has prompted college teachers to say that the exercise must translate into punitive action against errant managements.
At a private function in Pune on Monday, Patil said, "Private colleges justify high fees saying that they need to pay high salaries to teachers. There are some medical colleges where the yearly fees for each student is over Rs 20 lakh. Does that mean they pay Rs 10 lakh as salary to a teacher per month?"
He said fees are approved by dividing the total expenditure by the number of students. "If you are demanding such high fees, does that mean you have high fees or is an inflated figure shown to the FRA or is money changing hands at FRA to get more fees approved? I will visit 10% colleges where the fees for this year was approved by FRA to check what is the expenditure of such colleges and if the fees taken is justified, Patil said.
Sachin Shinde, a college teacher and rights activist, said, "This has been a practice among private managements. On paper, they show that they are paying Rs 90,000 per month to a teacher, but they pay only Rs 45,000. Or they credit the entire amount and then take Rs 45,000 in cash. During Covid-19, many teachers were laid off and many others did not get a single paise as salary for several months. But colleges have not reduced their fees. They are submitting documents of fake teachers to get the fees approved from the FRA. The minister must take action against errant managements."