New Delhi, July 29 (FN Agency) Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) Vinai Kumar Saxena has turned down the proposal to hike fees in diploma level technical institutions operated and owned by private organizations in the national capital, sources in the L-G office said.According to them, the move is aimed for “larger public interest” to enable students from all sections of society, particularly those from the lower economic strata to pursue various diploma level courses for attaining employment. “The L-G has advised the Delhi Chief Minister to postpone the proposed fee hike in Privately owned Institutions that run diploma level courses and are affiliated to the Board of Technical Education, GNCTD, by one year,” a senior official said. “The decision has been taken citing the fact that citizens are still recovering from the impact of economic restrictions imposed to contain the Covid-19 pandemic.l,” he added.
The officials also indicated keen interest of Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to hike the fees technical diploma courses. They said that a general practice followed to send a file to L-G office involves a noting that states ‘CM has seen the file’. However, this file had specific recommendation and signature of Arvind Kejriwal himself, they added. The officials said that the fee hike will affect lakhs of students and youth, predominantly from the lower and lower middle income sections, who pursue diplomas in courses like Pharmacy, Medical Lab Technology, Interior Design, Health Design, Instrumentation, Applied Arts etc to get entry level, semi white collared employment. “It is utterly shocking that Arvind Kejriwal-led AAP government that is strongly opposing a hike of merely 1% in taxes, that also after as long as 2004 by MCD is discreetly supporting hike to tune of 7% by private education mafia. Instead of answering as to why has the AAP government not paid thousands of crores that it owes to the MCD, Kejriwal has decided to hike the fees in these private technical institutes,” a senior functionary with Saxena said.The Delhi Government is yet to respond on the issue.