Private engineering colleges have taken strong exception to the state government's decision to increase seats in government-run colleges while stopping the private ones from hiking their intake capacity.
After downsizing, private engineering colleges in the state are planning substantial increase in fees from the forthcoming academic year. At least 40 private engineering colleges have been pleading to revise their annual fees.
Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh on Monday said the government will not issue licences to new private universities in the state, saying they are "not needed in a small state".
Even as calls are growing louder against the State government for allowing as many as 17 private universities to be set up in the State, Governor and Chancellor of universities H.R. Bhardwaj has given his approval to eight of them. This means that eight of the Bills that were passed by the Legislative Assembly and Council are now Acts, paving the way for their enforcement.
Four more Sambalpur-based private colleges have come under scrutiny even as the Crime Branch on Tuesday arrested Subash Barik, a close aide of Chairman of Shandilya College of Science and Commerce Kartik Chandra Barik.
ADG (CB) Bijay Sharma said Debendra Behera, suspended deputy secretary of Council of Higher Secondary Education (CHSE) in Sambalpur, had entered into a deal with private colleges to provide them question papers for money. Speaking about the modus operandi, Sharma said Behera had designed two modules to charge the private colleges.
Students taking admission to technical institutions affiliated to the Uttar Pradesh Technical University (UPTU) across the state are likely to see a change in fee structure as fee in all technical courses running in private engineering and management colleges in the state is being fixed.
While most private engineering colleges have decided to resume classes next week, government colleges are awaiting a notification from the Higher Education Department to reopen.
In a major setback to private engineering colleges operating without proper infrastructure and required faculty, the state government has ordered a "physical inspection" to ascertain the actual facilities available in the institutions.
Private engineering colleges plan to hike their hostel and mess fee by about 20 per cent this year on account of the rising prices of foodstuff like rice and cereals. Students, who pay Rs 10,000 already as hostel fee, may soon have to shell out more as a result.