College fee fixing body to have IAS babus
The Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC), which regulates admissions and fee structure in professional colleges in the state, is all set to be restructured.
The government plans to include IAS officers and retired bureaucrats in the AFRC, which currently is headed by retired High Court judges. About Rs 3 crore has been drained from the state exchequer by way of salaries and allowances to members of the AFRC since it was constituted in 2004. Even though the current AFRC’s term expired in 2009, it has been allowed to continue till date. The AFRC comprises two judges drawing the salaries on a par with sitting judges of the Supreme Court.
The state government plans to replace one of the judges with a chartered accountant in an effort to verify the accounts of professional colleges and fix the fee structure in accordance with the recent Supreme Court orders.
The existing AFRC was constituted through a government order. As a result, the decisions taken by the AFRC on fee structures are often challenged in the courts by college managements.
The state government now wants to bring in an Act in the Legislative Assembly for the constitution of the AFRC in order to accord it the “statutory powers”.
The government, which has hitherto turned a blind eye to the restructuring of the AFRC since 2004, is now compelled to do so before the commencement of college admissions in July following the SC orders that the colleges can seek a fee hike if they are willing to implement government payscales to the teaching and non-teaching staff, and that college-wise fees can be fixed unlike the existing system of a uniform fee for all colleges.
Post new comment