No More Arbitrary Fee Hikes: Delhi Govt Introduces Strict Law for Private Schools, Fines Up to Rs 10 Lakh

New Delhi (The Uttam Hindu): The government has taken a big step to curb the issue of arbitrary fee hike by private schools in Delhi. Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced on Saturday that the Delhi government will introduce a new education bill in the monsoon session of the Assembly starting on August 4, which aims to control the fee hike of private schools. This bill has a provision of heavy fines on schools violating the rules.

What are the strict provisions of the new bill?

The new bill approved by the Cabinet on April 29 has made strict punitive provisions for schools violating the rules. According to this bill, if a school violates the rules for the first time, it will be fined up to Rs 1 lakh. If the same school violates the rules repeatedly, the amount of fine can be increased significantly from Rs 2 lakh to Rs 10 lakh. The strictest provision of the bill is related to not refunding the increased fees. If a school does not refund the fees within the stipulated time, the fine will be doubled after 20 days, after 40 days it will be tripled, and similarly this fine will keep increasing continuously for every 20 days of delay.

Now Delhi Assembly will be paperless

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta also announced that Delhi Assembly will now work completely as 'e-Vidhan Sabha', that is, its functioning will be paperless. Expressing happiness over this, she said, "Delhi Assembly has been developed as an ideal assembly, as it has now become completely dependent on solar energy as well."

Why was there a need to introduce the bill?

This bill is being introduced after continuous protests and complaints from parents. This year, when the academic session began, many private schools in Delhi had increased the fees drastically, against which the parents of the students had protested on a large scale. Taking cognizance of these complaints, the Delhi government is now going to introduce this bill to bring the fee hike within the legal ambit.