The
Times of India: Pune: Tuesday, November 13, 2012.
The Shikshan
Shulka Samiti, which finalises the tuition fees of private unaided colleges in
the state, has said that releasing full details of the proposals for approval
of fees submitted every year by the 2,200-odd colleges is not feasible owing to
limitations - such as the limited capacity of its official website.
It has,
however, said that interested parties - students, parents and colleges - can
access full details of these proposals, either in the form of copies under the
Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005, or inspection of the same in the samiti's
office in Mumbai, by furnishing a nominal fee as per the panel's norms.
The samiti,
which is a Supreme Court-mandated quasi judicial panel appointed by the state
government, has directed its office to convey this position to the state chief
information commissioner (CIC).
In July 2009,
city-based RTI activist Vivek Velankar had emailed a plea to the samiti stating
that it was bound by the provisions under Sections 4 (1) (C) and 4 (1) (D) of
the RTI Act to publish full details relating to the fees revision proposals
moved by the colleges.
On October
10, Velankar emailed the CIC alleging that the samiti had failed to take notice
of his plea seeking declaration of all facts and reasons related to
finalization of fees, including the proposals submitted by the colleges, on the
fee panel's website.
P E Gaikwad,
the samiti's office secretary, told TOI on Monday, "Velankar had forwarded
a copy of this complaint to the samiti and it was discussed at the samiti's
meeting on November 6 under the chairmanship of Justice (Retd) P S Patankar. We
will convey the samiti's position to the CIC office after the ongoing
vacation."
Velankar, in
his complaint to the CIC, said, "Even after three years, the samiti has
failed to comply with the mandatory disclosure norm and is publishing only the
figures of revised and approved fees. Students need to know the facts and basis
on which their tuition fees is decided. Declaring such information will be very
useful to students, parents and institutions.
He further
stated, "The samiti gets fees revision proposal from colleges with all
relevant data and works out the revised fees based on this data and application
of prevailing fees fixation policy and formulae. Students need to know what
proposal was received by the samiti from a college and what considerations were
applied in revising the fees. Unfortunately, this is not happening.
Assessing the
complaint on November 6, the samiti said, "It is wrong to say that the
information regarding proposals is not made available to the parties interested
in approval of fees. The entire proposal is available for copies under RTI or
by paying nominal fee the entire proposal can be inspected in the (samiti)
office. This is done by various parties."
Draft minutes
of the meeting posted on the samiti's website stated, "The samiti acts
very transparently and nothing is hidden. All the norms of the samiti, as well
as the decisions taken by it, are posted on the website and they are available
to anybody. Due to the limitation of the capacity of the website the entire
proposal submitted by the college cannot be put up on the website."
"The
samiti receives more than 2,200 proposals for approval of fees every year. The
complaint regarding suppression of certain facts by the samiti is absolutely
erroneous," the minutes stated. "The samiti has even made a provision
for revision of application by the interested parties and a reasoned order is
passed on such revision applications after an elaborate hearing process and the
reasoned order is posted on the website. All this is done to avoid harassment
by some individuals with oblique motive," it added.
"It is
necessary to note that the samiti has been established as per the directions of
the Supreme Court. The samiti has to see the audited accounts and other
connected documents as provided in the fees fixation norms and the fees are
approved only after going through these documents," the minutes stated.
When asked to
comment on the samiti's latest position, Velankar said, "I have sought to
raise a simple point, that is, provisions of the RTI Act must be followed in
toto and flimsy reasons like inadequate capacity of the website cannot be
accepted in this era of e-governance."
"Inspection
of proposals submitted by colleges in the samiti's office is not convenient for
students or parents residing far away from Mumbai. Also, students seeking such
details through RTI can be targeted by their colleges. If all information is
available on the website, then it will be far more convenient for the
students/parents to know what is happening.
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