'Acche din' for SC/ST, Dalit, physically challenged; Smriti Irani promises 100% fee waiver at IITs

New Delhi: Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani has promised to waive off fees for Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe, Dalit and physically challenged students of all the Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) across the country, a report said on Thursday.

According to a report published in The Times of India, the HRD Minister said, besides waiving off the fees of the particular students, the family of the students which have an annual income of less than Rs 5 lakhs, will be given a 66 percent concession in the fees.

Irani's decision comes after an IIT panel last month approved a proposal for a three-fold hike in annual fees of IITs from the present Rs 90,000.

Sources had told PTI that the SCIC, a body comprising IIT directors and senior officials, in a meeting adopted the report presented earlier by a sub-committee headed by IIT Bombay Director Devang Khakhar which had suggested hiking fees to Rs 3 lakh and also recommended multiple sources of financing for the IITs.