The college had raised the fees for both the free and payment seats by Rs 3,000 and Rs 8,000 respectively, from the Rs 4,000 and Rs 32,000 hitherto charged as `development' charges without the sanction of the state government. Sources at the college reveal that the inflated fees would have fetched the college management an additional Rs 1 crore at least.

The problem first surfaced at Nanded early last week, where the management runs another engineering college. The students, who were in the process of finalising their admissions there, were abruptly asked to pay Rs 3,000 and Rs 8,000 in addition to the fees prescribed by the state government for free and payment seats respectively, as adevelopment fee.

The management had displayed a circular issued by the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), the apex body which regulates professional engineering colleges, recommending the hike. The college had erroneously claimed that the AICTE had empowered it to raise the fees. Students were alerted to the ploy as no other private engineering college in the region or elsewhere in the state had altered its fee structure. While students at Nanded had boycotted classes since early last week, their counterparts in Aurangabad joined the protest on Friday, the day the fee hike was announced here.

This is the first time in several years that students of the college have resorted to a strike, though there have been serious complaints of `forcible' collection of fees and penalties before. Assistant Director of Technical Education SV Kolhe, who along with Joint Director Kshirsagar, mediated in the talks between the college management and the students, told The Indian Express that thematter had been resolved.

Kolhe explained that the management had hiked the fees on the basis of a circular (dated June 24) issued by the AICTE, which had recommended that the fees be raised. The circular, however, had been dispatched by the AICTE to the Department of Higher and Technical Education, recommending the altered fee structure. Any actual increase in fees must be cleared and sanctioned by the state government, Kohle explained.

Senior officials in the office of the joint director of technical education told this paper that the department is contemplating issuing a memo to the college principal, Pratap Borade, demanding an explanation for his arbitrary decision to increase the fees without consulting the government.

The college principal, Pratap Borade, who had announced his intention to resign following the strike, is out of station and could not be contacted.