In a sharp rebuff to the Government, Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad (IIMA) chairman Vijaypat Singhania has said that he isn’t empowered to rollback the fee hike and has questioned why the HRD Ministry’s review committee singled out IIMA and not other IIMs on the issue.

In a strong letter sent to the HRD ministry on April 11, he has underlined that he did discuss the issue with HRD Minister Arjun Singh who had agreed to the hike. Singhania, who had announced a 20-fold increase in scholarships and a relaxation in financial-aid criteria, criticised the review committee, headed by Maruti Udyog chairman R C Bhargava, for ignoring all other issues that it was supposed to “review” and instead exclusively focusing on the fee hike.

“The IIM Review committee was to deliberate on several issues and give its final report within six months, none of which it has sought to give in its final report, except asked us to hold back increased fees without assigning any reason, and that too a week after we announced the change. Is this fair? Why only IIMA fee change is mentioned in it and not increases by other IIMs?”

“The Committee was to give a report on the Chairman’s role within a month of its formation in October, 2007. How come no mention of it in its interim report? The Ministry on considering their recommendations may decide to give suitable directives to the IIMs. Till then, the Board decision taken in its March meeting stands,” he said.

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