Puducherry: The government on Wednesday directed the private educational institutions not to insist eligible SC/ST students to pay their tuition fees as it is implementing the free education for them from KG to Research classes from the 2020-21 academic year itself.
In a statement here, SC/ST Welfare Department Director Yashwanthiah warned the private educational institutions of stringent action if it violate the direction.
He said the government is implementing the free education from the current academic year itself and will remit the tuition fees of all eligible SC/ST students.
Though, private educational institutions were directed to give the details of eligible SC/ST students in their institutions on January 12, February 16 and July 1, several institutions are yet to give a reply.
It may be noted that the previous Congress-DMK government introduced the scheme here, but could not implement it then.
Political parties, including AIADMK, DMK, VCK and CPI had urged the present NR Congress-BJP government to implement the same from the present academic year, following which a decision to implement the same was taken.
UNI