Over hundred parents staged peaceful protest outside the school premises of Delhi Public School, Mathura Road, on Thursday against its move to not rollback the fee hike despite an order by the Delhi Government.

The school authorities maintained that only those private schools need to have prior permission from the Government before increasing the fees which are built on land alloted by DDA/other Government agencies on concessional rates, and the Mathura Road branch of DPS has a different land deed.

The Delhi Government had last month ordered DPS Mathura Rod and DPS Rohini to rollback fee hike and refund the increased fee collected by the schools in the academic session 2016-17. The move came after over 400 parents from both the schools approached Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia with a complaint alleging that the schools have arbitrarily hiked the fee. Sisodia had also directed the Directorate of Education (DoE) to take necessary action against the “errant” schools that have not only hiked fees but also “compelled” students to buy books from private publishers. DPS Rohini had announced rollback of the increased fee.

However, agitated parents claimed that the Mathura Road branch has refused to do so claiming they have communicated their response to DoE and are waiting to hear from them.

“Despite the Government order, the school has not rolled back the hiked fee. They claim that they have replied to the DOE order on fee roll back and are waiting for a response,” said one of the parents. The parents also claimed that the fee has been hiked by 17 to 20 per cent this year amounting to annual fees of Rs1,25,000 to Rs140,000 per annum per student.   School Principal Manohar lal said that the land deed of the school does not have the clause to take permission from government before fee hike.

“The allotment letter given to us based on the land deed in 70s does not require us to take prior permission. We have replied to the notice from DOE and are awaiting their response,” he said.