Government will take action on erring schools

CHENNAI: The State government is prepared to take action against schools that collect excessive fees, School Education minister C Ve Shanmugam told the Tamil Nadu Assembly on Wednesday.Responding to Gingee PMK MLA A Ganesh Kumar’s plea that the government take action against matriculation schools that collect huge donations without waiting for complaints from parents, he said the government would take appropriate action if schools collected excessive fees. “Nowhere have we said that the government couldn’t intervene on this issue. Amma has already made it clear. Let the Ravi Raja Pandian Committee, that is working on the issue, complete its task and the government will take action if school managements or students have any grievances,” he said.   On the PMK member’s remark on the new secretariat complex, Commercial Taxes minister Gokula Indira said the CM had already clarified the reason for not opting to function out of the premises. Iron Hand on Overcharging SchoolsNoting that several State government-aided schools were charging arbitrarily higher fees without proper receipts, NS Venkatraman, trustee of NGO Nandini Voice for the Deprived, asked that the government stem these actions with an iron hand.The State government should open a complaint cell to receive complaints on the matter from students and parents while protecting the complainant’s identity.