New Delhi, April 15 (NationPress) - Delhi Chief Minister Rekha Gupta issued a stern warning on Tuesday to private schools, threatening severe repercussions for any arbitrary fee hikes. She pledged to send notices to the management of all schools that have reportedly raised fees in violation of established regulations.

“Institutions engaging in unlawful practices will be held accountable,” noted CM Gupta, affirming that numerous parents have raised concerns regarding the overreach of certain schools.

“We have received numerous complaints from parents. It is unequivocal that no school has the authority to exploit students or impose unreasonable fee increases,” she added, emphasizing the existence of rules governing fee adjustments.

Schools must respond to our notices, and if found guilty of misconduct, they will face appropriate actions, she stated.

CM Gupta's caution to Delhi's private educational institutions follows an order from Education Minister Ashish Sood for an audit of 1,677 schools across the city.

Minister Sood criticized the previous AAP-led government in Delhi for alleged failures in auditing private schools and neglecting to take action against them for questionable reasons.

He also provided an email address – ddeact1@gmail.com – for parents to report complaints regarding unjustified fee increases.

Condemning the previous administration's inaction towards errant schools, Sood questioned, “Why did the AAP government not take any action against these institutions?”

“The education department lacks records of audit reports for any school over the past decade,” he stated.

“We will initiate legal cases and within 10 days, we will publish information regarding the fee hikes permitted by the AAP government over the last 10 years,” Sood revealed.

He alleged that a school accused of committing a fraud amounting to Rs 15 crore was permitted to increase fees by 15% and 13% in two separate phases by the prior AAP administration.

Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva reassured parents that the Delhi government will rigorously tackle unjust fee increases by private institutions and mandate audits for all 1,650+ private schools.

He accused former Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, ex-Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj, and former CM Atishi of utilizing social media to propagate confusion and misinformation regarding fee hikes by private schools.

“The AAP leaders are persistently attempting to create a misleading political narrative against the BJP in Delhi. When their propaganda failed on issues like the Women’s Prosperity Scheme, Ayushman Bharat, and power outages, they have now seized upon the school fee hike issue for political gain - but they will not prevail,” he concluded.