Maharashtra to hike registration fees for minority institutions

The registration fee for minority institutions is a meagre Rs 550. The government intends to raise it to a minimum of Rs 2,500.

Currently, there are 2,472 institutions with the minority status. Of them, 1,060 belong to religious minority groups such as Buddhist, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Christians et al.

The Maharashtra government is planning to increase registration fee for educational institutions with religious or linguistic minority status. It will also make it compulsory for minority trusts to seek permission and ensure registration each time they open a college or school.

State Revenue Minister Eknath Khadse said Sunday, “The decision to increase the registration fee is not to earn additional revenue. It is aimed at enforcing some regulation on these trusts, some of which have been found violating norms.”

Currently, there are 2,472 institutions with the minority status. Of them, 1,060 belong to religious minority groups such as Buddhist, Muslims, Sikhs, Parsis, Jains, Christians et al. The remaining represent the linguistic minority who have non-Marathi mother tongues.

The registration fee for minority institutions is a meagre Rs 550. The government intends to raise it to a minimum of Rs 2,500.

The state government accords minority status to education institutions run by religious and linguistic minorities. These include Jains, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Parsis, Buddhists and non-Marathis et al.

According to Khadse, “These institutions were accorded special concessions for several decades. They were never subjected to any monitoring mechanism. As a result, there has been rampant mismanagement and conditions laid down by the government on admissions and other aspects have been flouted in many cases.”

Khadse added, “It has come to our notice that once they avail the minority tag, they open up new colleges and schools without registering them. Such institutions were never questioned in the past by the Congress-NCP government.”

Currently, the special concessions to such institutions come with a rider that they would first fill 50 per cent of their seats with students from minority communities and then admit other students. However, Khadse claimed such norms are often flouted and the institutions’ records of enrolling students are not clear.

“We will bring regulations. Those not heeding them can face disqualification of minority status,” he said, adding that the special category tag was not for “rampant commercialisation of education”.

“Why should select institutions get special treatment? They should also conform to rules applicable to non-minority educational trusts and institutions,” said the minister.

He said they had served notices to many institutions which they found had violated guidelines. “Initially, we will ask them to fix the problems and adhere to our guidelines. If they continue to violate norms, we will suspend their minority tag.”

Source | Indian Express | 10 August 2015