Chandigarh, June 4 -- The Punjab government has decided to cap fee hikes in private schools in the state at 5% annually, following the suicide of a 17-year-old student allegedly due to fee-related harassment. The decision was announced by chief minister Bhagwant Mann, who said that the state government would put in place a sweeping regulatory framework that caps annual fee increases at 5%, mandates refunds of excess fees collected from parents wherever schools breached the annual limit during the last three years, and prescribes stringent penalties that can ultimately lead to cancellation of a school's recognition. "We will bring a bill in the next assembly session to enact the most stringent law in the country. An ordinance may also be brought. The 5% hike limit will apply to tuition fees and all other mandatory funds and charges such as transportation charges, multimedia fee, etc. Strict action will be taken against any school that violates this cap on fee hike," he said at a press conference after a meeting with officials of the school education department. The announcement comes days after the Amritsar police booked the principal and a teacher of a private school following the death by suicide of the student, who allegedly faced mental harassment over unpaid fees. The student, who had just passed Class 11 and lived with her maternal aunt in Amritsar, consumed a poisonous substance at home on May 22. After battling for life for eight days, she succumbed on May 30. Following her death, her father filed a complaint, accusing the school authorities of mental harassment and humiliation in front of other students. The police registered a case of abetment to suicide. Taking to X on Wednesday, Mann stated that after the tragic incident in Amritsar, he received hundreds of calls from parents over the past 24 hours regarding arbitrary fee hikes by private schools. "Considering the future of our children and the immense distress being faced by parents, the government has taken this very important and stringent decision," he posted. Stating that the unchecked fee hikes were enabled by amendments introduced by the previous Congress government in 2019, the CM told reporters that the new law would restore accountability in the education sector, protect parents from exploitation and permanently end the harassment of children and families over school fees. He said this would be the strictest regulation of its kind in the country, with no school being granted any exemption. The CM said the fee structure of private unaided schools was governed by the Punjab Regulation of Fee of Unaided Educational Institutions Act, 2016, which stipulated that fee hikes should not exceed 8% of the previous year's fee, but this provision was diluted through amendments introduced by the previous government. "Successive governments had also failed to implement the law effectively, allowing schools to impose excessive fee hikes on parents," he alleged. He further stated that all pending complaints related to fee hikes would now be examined and acted upon. According to an official release, the proposed legislation would build upon the 2016 Act, which governs fee structures in private unaided schools across the state. Under the new framework proposed by the state government, schools which increased fees by more than 15% during the last three years may face scrutiny and action. The state government is also examining mechanisms for financial audits of private schools. One proposal under consideration involves empanelling chartered accountants to review schools' financial records from the previous three to five years, including fee collections, expenditure, salaries, infrastructure investments, reserves and related-party transactions. Such audits would help determine whether fee hikes were genuinely justified and whether collected funds were utilised for educational purposes, it said. Commenting on Union minister of state for railways Ravneet Singh Bittu's statement expressing his desire to contest the Punjab assembly elections, Mann said that Bittu would soon not only lose his ministry but also his Rajya Sabha seat. He claimed the BJP had asked Bittu to show his political standing by winning the assembly election....