Faridabad: Apathy of the government along with continued disobedience of the private schools not confirming to the laws on the issue of fee hike, the parents have finally resorted to renew their agitation in the state on a larger scale.

The Haryana School Abhibhavak Ekta Manch, a parent's body spearheading the agitation took this decision at a meeting of its executive council.

The committee has asked its members to draw a road map to chalk out the fresh struggle in the next meeting scheduled on March 28.

Alleging that the parents didn’t get justice even after meeting the Chief Minister of Haryana, Bhupinder Singh Hooda thrice along with a positive intervention by the Punjab and Haryana High Court, a sate level office bearer of the manch said that the activity would be further intensified.

What comprises the saga of the parents is the unreasonable rise in the school fees by 30 to 35% last year which is an utter breach of the rules.

Their protest has been on since March last year and those flouting the rules are affiliated to the Haryana board as well as to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE).

The last parliamentary and assembly elections even saw parents out on the streets.

The agitation's impact was felt when the commissioner-cum-director general, school education, Haryana, issued notices to the schools, directing them not to raise the tuition fees.

The notice particularly mentioned that if the issue of raising the fee is due to the sixth pay commission, then the school must use its surplus fund to meet the cost. In addition, if the funds are not enough to meet the expenses then the school is allowed to raise only 20% of the tuition fee prevailing in the academic year 2008-09 provided that it submits its annual statement of income and expenditure to the government.

Urging a stay order on the verdict, some schools had even approached the Punjab and Haryana High Court but, it was not granted.

The private schools however, not minding the directives openly flouted the norms and continued to raise the fees.

There were cases when the school management for not paying the hiked fee harassed the parents and their children.

There's more to their harassment as they allege that since a number of private schools are owned and run by bigwigs and friends and relatives of politicians the government is not pursuing the case ardently.

Making the schools follow the rules would affect their incomes.

The effort of the parents went unnoticed when they approached the MLAs of the ruling and the opposition parties with the request to handle the issue in the just-concluded budget session of the Haryana Vidhan Sabha.

The demand of parents extends not only to ensure that the schools follow the directives but they also expect them to return the extra fee paid to them.

The leaders of the manch allege that the private schools are once again planning to raise the fees at the start of the coming academic year.