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Less than 24 hours aft Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann announced sweeping reforms to curb arbitrary interest hikes by backstage schools, the Punjab Government has moved swiftly to construe the determination into law. School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains has written to the Secretary, School Education Department, directing the contiguous drafting of authorities that volition modulate backstage schoolhouse fees, enforce transparency and accountability, and support much than 32 lakh students and their families from unjustified fiscal burden.
The projected authorities volition headdress yearly interest hikes astatine 5% and necessitate schools that person accrued fees beyond the prescribed 15% threshold implicit the past 3 years to refund the excess magnitude collected from parents. The determination marks a decisive measurement by the Punjab Government to curb profiteering successful the acquisition assemblage and guarantee that backstage schools relation successful the involvement of students and parents alternatively than commercialized gain.
In the order, School Education Minister Harjot Singh Bains stated, “Providing accessible and affordable acquisition is the topmost precedence of our government. More than 32 lakh students are presently enrolled successful astir 7,800 backstage schools crossed Punjab. These students and their families merit robust extortion and safeguards against arbitrary interest increases, alongside implicit transparency successful however these institutions operate.”
The Education Minister said the determination has been taken nether the enactment of CM Bhagwant Singh Mann to firmly curb profiteering successful the acquisition sector. “The Chief Minister has decided that the ongoing profiteering by backstage schools indispensable beryllium firmly curbed. Education is simply a noble and ineffable endeavour; it is simply a nationalist good, not a commercialized endeavor to beryllium exploited for profit. This rule has been explicitly reinforced by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India, which has repeatedly ruled that portion backstage institutions person the close to tenable interest structures, commercialisation and profiteering successful acquisition are strictly impermissible,” said the Minister.
Minister Harjot Singh Bains said, “To support the interests of our citizens, the authorities intends to present a legislative model that volition guarantee accountability and forestall arbitrary interest hikes. The substance is being accorded apical precedence and the Department has been directed to hole a broad connection for Cabinet information astatine the earliest.”
As portion of the projected legislation, the Punjab Government volition present a strict yearly interest headdress for backstage schools. Under the caller framework, backstage schools volition not beryllium allowed to summation fees by much than 5% successful a year.
The authorities volition besides supply retrospective alleviation to parents. Any backstage schoolhouse that has cumulatively accrued its fees by much than 15% during the past 3 consecutive years volition beryllium legally required to refund the excess magnitude collected beyond the prescribed threshold to parents.
The Bhagwant Mann Government believes that acquisition should stay accessible and affordable for each kid and that parents should not beryllium burdened by unjustified interest increases. The projected authorities is expected to found a transparent and accountable regulatory model for backstage schools crossed Punjab.
