Phagwara: Congress in Punjab on Saturday proposed a constitutional commission instead of a regulatory authority as decided by the state government be set up to check overcharging of fees and "exploitation" of parents and students at private unaided schools.
Chairman of Scheduled Castes (SC) department, Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee, Raj Kumar said a constitutional commission, headed by a serving or retired high court judge be set up for checking exorbitant fees by some private schools.
Punjab government had yesterday said it gave final touches to a draft of the regulatory authority after a meeting of senior officials of the Education Department attended by Education Minister Daljit Singh Cheema.
Dismissing as an "eye-wash" the finalisation of the draft of the regulatory authority, Kumar said panels had existed earlier also but private schools continued their open loot with arbitrary hikes in fees and funds.
"Only a constitutional commission, having punitive powers against erring schools, would serve the purpose," he said.
He was addressing a press conference at the venue of Congress activists' five-day hunger strike in Guru Hargobindnagar here against the overcharging of fees and funds by private schools and non-implementation of Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme for SC/OBC college students.
Claiming that during UPA government Rs 250 crore were annually released for Post-Matric Scholarship Scheme, he alleged that during Modi and Badal governments not a single penny was being released.
He also alleged that colleges were harassing SC students by withholding their roll numbers.
The hunger strike by five Congress activists entered its fourth day today.
