ABVP slams govt over fee hike

MANGALORE: The Akhila Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad on Thursday slammed the state government for increasing fees of professional courses ''exorbitantly''.
Speaking to reporters, ABVP state Secretary Vishwanath Pai noted that instead of filing an appeal against the proposed fee by the high court, the state was justifying the fee structure in the Supreme Court.Pai said by denying the SC/ST students seats, the government was shying away from social justice.
Pai said that after the ABVP''s July 23 protest, Chief Minister S M Krishna has said the governent''s priority was mid-day meals and primary education.
"If the government has no say or is not interested in higher education, why have a minister and a department for the same?" Pai said.
To protest against the state government''s policy and to urge for a suitable policy to enable poor afford professional education, the ABVP would be sending an e-mail to President A P J Abdul Kalam and post one lakh post cards to the President as well as Supreme Court judges.
Pai also said the Mangalore University was commercialising higher education by increasing the fee ten-fold. He said while the earlier course fee for post graduate courses was Rs 1,850, this year it was about Rs 10,700.