Himachal’s most prestigious and India’s oldest all-women college, St. Bede’s is back in news for its undue charge of tuition fee from Himachal girls. According to Himachal Pradesh State government instructions, St. Bede’s college was expected to exempt Himachal girls from tuition fee, but the fact is that the college has been continuously charging tuition fee from 1996 to 2010. Now though the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has rapped the college for charging tuition fee from the students belonging to the state.
Based on the report tabled in the state assembly last week CAG informed:
“Scrutiny of records revealed that the college, financed by the state by way of grant-in-aid to the extent of 95 percent, had charged tuition fee amounting to Rs.65.92 lakh from 9,768 students during 1996-97 to 2009-10 in contravention of the state government’s instructions,”
It is reported that college stopped charging fee from July last year, while the college principal in reply to the CAG’s accusation, said ‘the copy of instructions was not endorsed by the education department and the tuition fee is considered as part of income for calculating grant-in-aid, the benefits of which goes to the government, not to the college.’
