Financially Strained IITs to Seek Reimbursement from the Government

The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) that are financially strained have sought replacement of fee concessions provided to students coming from economically and socially backward sections with reimbursements and interest-free loans. In a recent meeting of the institutes' directors, the IIT Council was informed about these recommendations.

A source from the meeting informed that the financial viability of the institutions is getting adversely affected by the existing system of giving exemptions to students without any reimbursements of the costs incurred by them.

The source said that if the government wants to give free education to SC, ST or PwD students, the cost can be reimbursed to the institutes using the DBT system or the Direct Benefit Transfer system, either by the ministry of human resource development or by the ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment.

The final verdict will be taken at a meeting of the IIT Council. The fee for IIT was earlier increased by the government from INR 90,000 to INR 2 lakh per annum.

While announcing the hike, the HRD ministry exempted the students whose annual family income was under INR 1 lakh from paying the fee. Students from families with an annual income between INR 1 lakh and INR 5 lakh were given a two-thirds remission.

The directors have suggested giving interest-free loans to economically and socially backward sections instead of the current full or partial waiver policy said the source.

There are 10,500 undergraduate students in 23 IITs. According to sources, 301 of the 860 B.Tech students at IIT-D were not paying any fees as they either belonged to SC, ST category or had been given a waiver on economic grounds. Another 100 students have sought a full waiver.

Similar waivers were done at almost all the other IITs following which the institutes decided to verify the income status of the students.

The sources added that the IITs receive government funding but it barely covers maintenance costs and hence, the institutes depend on fees from students to upgrade labs, hostels, and other facilities.