![IITs to Scrutinize Economic Status of Students Seeking Fee Waiver](https://media.collegedekho.com/media/img/news/Institute_of_Public_EnterpriseHyderabad_1.png?height=310&width=615)
To prevent the misuse of schemes for students belonging to low-income families seeking a fee waiver, Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will start verifying the economic status of the students from January 2017.
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It was in August 2016 when the IIT Council, which is the decision-making body of the colleges, took the decision to cross-check students’ claims during its meeting.
After the increase of tuition fee from INR 90,000 to INR 2 lakhs per year, there is a sharp rise in undergraduate students seeking an exemption.
While sharing the information, an official on the condition of anonymity, said that after the hike in the fee, revenue should have increased but instead, it was dropping. So much so that even several general category students wanted full or partial waivers. Now the IITs have decided to get details of their school as well as the coaching classes these students had attended. It will help the IITs to determine if the income certificate produced by these students is genuine or not.
But students belonging to scheduled castes, tribes and disabled students, who are exempt from paying the fee, will not come under the scanner. Local revenue officials issue income certificates.
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Sources also said that from January, IIT Delhi would also tell students seeking a complete or partial waiver of the fee to fill up a form with details of the coaching institutes and school they attended.
Around 100 students have sought a full waiver in fee and IIT Delhi has told them to fill the form, after which the institute will verify their certificates.
When the human resource development ministry announced the fee hike, it had exempted the students whose annual family income is below INR 1 lakh from paying the fee. Students hailing from families whose annual income is between INR 1 lakh and INR 5 lakh, were given a two-thirds concession.
Many students had filed doubtful income certificates to get exemptions given by the government. IIT Roorkee also face similar problems and asked the students to get their certificates verified.
At present, there are 10,500 undergraduate students studying in 23 IITs of the country.