Maharashtra: Law students take grievances about fees to education dept

PUNE: Law students from various colleges in the city are up against various issues related to fees, including concession. They also claim that reserved and backward category students are being overcharged.
With the bachelor and masters degree students of first-year students starting late with entrance exam results being delayed, students have demanded that they should be given concessions up to 50 %.
A law student said, "I belong to the backward category and yet the college has asked me to pay Rs 37,000 as first instalment fee.There is no concession given and we have taken this issue to the social welfare department as well as the higher education department. But, there is no response."
A group of students from 12 law colleges in the city came together and submitted a letter to the higher education department regarding fee concession. A student from this group said that, "We have been demanding from the last three months that first year students be given at least 50% concession in fees as the second semester started and ten days later institutes were shut down due to lockdown."
The students said they had attended only 8 to 9% of the total offline classes. According to the universities act, every semester has to be conducted for a minimum 90 days.
Another student said, "According to the university rules, a student has to have attendance of 75% and if there is less than that, then students are not allowed to sit for the semester exam. Students are not even allowed to fill the exam form. We are just fighting for our rights."
Another student from the group said, "We are paying annual fees of nearly Rs 30,000 to Rs 40,000. Many students opt for loans to pay their fees. In the first semester we attended barely 40 to 45 days, whose names appeared in the first merit list of centralised admissions. The second list students started attending even later. When the second semester began, the lockdown was imposed. Hence, we are demanding a fee concession."
When contacted, director of higher education Dhanraj Mane, said, "The law students must give their grievances in writing to the department in order to give their demands a thought. If they have submitted their grievances to the office we will take a look at it and review after discussing with the experts."