CM urged to appoint tripartite committee

ERODE: Federation of TN private school managements associations has asked Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa to reject Justice Ravirajapandiyan committee report and appoint a tripartite committee to decide on fee structure.The federation, at its meeting held here on Sunday, wanted her to allow them to collect last year’s fees as interim relief with granting 15 per cent hike on the fee every year on the basis of inflation and cost of price index. It also sought an additional 15 per cent of the fee to create corpus fund to run the schools.It urged her to constitute a tripartite committee of parents, schools, government officials to fix fair fee structure as per her poll assurance. It wanted withdrawal of TN schools (regulation of collection of fee) Act 2009 or take steps to set right the defects in it by bringing suitable law in the ensuing assembly session.The federation said 6,400 schools applied to Ravirajapandiyan committee against the fees fixed by Govindarajan committee. Though the Act said that the appeals must be considered within 30 days and High Court and Supreme Court ordered that the orders on appeals be passed by January 2011, the norm was not adhered.Ravirajapandiyan committee passed orders recently without holding inquiry with the schools properly.Though Govindarajan commitee was appointed to fix fair fees, it reduced the fees, already collected in 2009-10 by 75 and 66 per cents, creating confusion among schools, students, teachers and parents.Justice Ravirajapandiyan, appointed after the resignation of Justice Govindarajan, aggravated the issue by issuing his order belatedly. The fees are not fixed in scientific manner. His committee took into account some expenditure for this year and did not consider the future pay hike for teachers and other expenditures of the schools for the next 2 years.