NEW DELHI: The human resource development ministry on Thursday scarpped the 40% weightage given to Class XII scores while calculating ranks for Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main and also hiked IIT fee from Rs 90,000 to Rs 2 lakh per annum.The ministry announcing key changes in the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for 2017 that determines admissions to all IITs, NITs and all major engineering colleges.The last fee hike at IITs was effected in 2013 taking it up from Rs 50,000 per annum to Rs 90,000.The 40% weightage to Class XII marks was introduced by the then HRD minister Kapil Sibal under the UPA regime to put greater emphasis on school education and check coaching menace.Based on the recommendations of the Ashok Misra committee set up last year, the HRD ministry led by Smriti Irani announced dispensing with the 40% weightage rule but emphasised that “performance of the students in the class 12 examination shall be a crucial parameter for determining the eligibility of the student for the JEE examination”.To qualify for JEE 2017, a candidate will have to now secure at least 75% marks or be in the top 20 percentile in the Class 12 Examination conducted by respective boards. For SC/ST students, this condition has been relaxed to 65% marks.Also acting on the recommendations of the standing committee of the IIT Council, the ministry has agreed to a fee hike at IITs to ensure that “the cost of maintenance of the IITs is to be met largely from the student fee”.With about 80,000 students at IITs, the total cost estimate of salary heads and maintenance works comes around Rs 2,500 crore.As per the ministry statement, the government on an average is spending about Rs 6 lakh per year on each student in the IITs. While the SCIC had recommended a fee hike up to Rs 3 lakh per annum, the ministry has agreed only for a hike up to Rs Rs 2 lakh in view of student interest, it said.Further, all IITs have been asked to use the increased student fee for infrastructure development with the assistance of funds from the Higher Education Funding Agency (HEFA) so that the increased fee directly translates into better infrastructure for the students.The matter will be placed in next meeting of the IIT Council — chaired by minister Smriti Irani for ratification. Differently abled and students belonging to SC/ST category will get complete fee waiver and the most economically backward students (whose family income is less than .`1lakh per annum) will get full remission of the fee. Students from families with annual income of less than .`5 lakh will also be entitled to a waiver of two-third amount.