NEW DELHI, January 22: While condemning the harassment of parents by public schools, the Delhi Abhibhavak Mahasangh (DAM) has said that it will file a case of contempt of court against the Delhi Government for non-compliance with High Court directives. The court, in October 1998, had set certain directives to check commercialisation of private schools in the Capital.A committee was to be set up under the chairmanship of Justice Santosh Duggal, a retired judge, to consider the re-structuring of tuition fees and other charges levied by recognised unaided private schools in Delhi. Speaking at a press conference, Vijender Kumar, president, DAM, said: ``Most people do not know that the committee was actually set up to claim the refund of whatever extra the schools had charged them in the name of `donations', apart from the excess fee taken by them between April 1997 and March 1999.'' If this money is added up, it would amount to not less than Rs 500-1,000 crore, he said.He claimed the Director of Education had failed to implement the directions.Anil Khanna, president of the New Era Public School Parents Association, alleged that the New Era Public School was charging Rs 20,000 as the fee for the academic year 1998-99 as well as for the year 1999-2000, when the total enhanced fee charged from each student is less than Rs 14,000. ``And that too is subjected to the approval of the Duggal Committee. The school had enhanced the tuition fee from Rs 500 to Rs 700 for the year 1997-98 as per the 40 per cent hike allowed by the High Court. But the school hiked this fee to Rs 975 the next year, which amounts to another 39.28 per cent hike, in violation of the court order,'' he said. Besides this, Khanna alleged there has been a discrepancy of Rs 41 lakh in the payments made by the schools towards the salary to the teachers.
