Congress stages walkout from Gujarat Assembly on fee waiver issue

The Opposition Congress on Thursday demanded a fee waiver for all school and college students in Gujarat in view of the coronavirus pandemic and later staged a walkout from the Assembly over the issue.

Around 40 Congress MLAs, led by Leader of Opposition Paresh Dhanani, walked out of the House accusing the BJP government of not taking a firm decision regarding fee waiver at a time when people are suffering financially due to coronavirus and the subsequent lockdown.

In his "short notice question", Imran Khedawala (Congress) sought to know if the state government had any plans to help people by waiving school as well as college fees.

In his reply, Education Minister Bhupendrasinh Chudasama said the House should refrain from discussing a sub-judice issue as a petition regarding college fee is pending before the Gujarat High Court.

Notably, the High Court recently disposed of a petition seeking school fee waiver and asked the government to take a call on the matter.

However, another petition regarding college fee is still pending before the HC.

Dhanani said the government must waive six months' fees of 1.36 crore school pupils and 15 lakh college students in Gujarat in view of economic slowdown and loss of employment of millions of poor and middle-class citizens due to the pandemic and the resultant lockdown.

When the government did not respond to the demand, Congress MLAs walked out of the the House in protest. They returned to the Assembly after sometime.