The state government has agreed to implement a common fee for convener and management quota seats in 87 engineering, MBA and MCA colleges for the coming academic year 2012-13. The fees are expected to increase to Rs 50,200 from the present Rs 31,000 for B.Tech courses, and for MBA/MCA courses from Rs 27,000 to Rs 42,300. The government gave an undertaking in the Supreme Court to this effect on Monday. The government infor-med the court that 87 colleges have filed 31 petitions in the court challenging the decision of the Admissions and Fee Regulatory Committee (AFRC) to categorise the seats as convener and management quota and fix variable fee structure for these seats.

The government brought to the notice of the Supreme Court that, out of 87 colleges, only 28 have submitted their audited accounts pertaining to income and expenditure so as to enable the AFRC to fix college-wise fee. The government informed the apex court that it will issue a notification by January 31 asking the colleges to submit their fee proposals within 15 days. The government will study those proposals in the next 15 days and fix college-wise fee after going through their audited accounts. If any college fails to submit fee proposals, it will be viewed as the management accepting whatever fee are prescribed by the government.

The government undertaking in the SC means that fee will vary for each college from the coming academic year. At present, all colleges have a uniform fee of Rs 31,000 per annum for convener quota seats, and Rs 95,000 for management quota seats for B.Tech courses. For MBA/MCA courses, it is Rs 27,000 in convener quota and Rs 78,000 in management quota.