FEE REGULATORY BODY LIKELY TO HEAR PLAINTS ON JUNE 15

CHANDIGARH:Over 150 individual and joint complaints have been received by the Fee Regulatory Authority of Chandigarh in the last one month. However, two years after its constitution, the Right to Information (RTI) data shows that the body has not even met once.

The body is now likely to hold its first meeting on June 15, where various issues will be taken up. The committee will hear the complaints of parents filed so far and will also decide on the penalty to be imposed on city schools for violating the norms of Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act 2016.

Principal secretary, education, Arun Kumar Gupta said: “All such complaints are recent and were received in the last month. So there was no point in a meeting earlier when practically no complaint was pending.”

After notification of the act in the city in 2018, the regulatory body has acknowledged just one complaint to date which is still pending. Apart from filing complaints with the body, the parents are also protesting regularly against various private schools against arbitrary charging of school fees.

As per Section 11 of the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act 2016, “Any complaint received under this Act shall be scrutinised by the regulatory body within a period of 15 days from the date of its receipt in accordance with the prescribed procedure, and it shall be finally decided within 60 days.”

The committee comprises the education secretary, district education officer and seven other members.