Nagpur: It’s not a popular cause to take up but some private schools are planning to take a stand on what they allege is state’s dictatorial attitude governing the terms and conditions of fee hikes.Schools feel there is an increased level of activism by politically-connected parents which ultimately hampers administrative function at school. A senior academician, who is also part of a private schools association said, “Ultimately, all issues raised by parents come back to the fee part. Some complain directly while others take a different route and point out issues which they somehow connect back to fee.”Speaking to TOI, a group of principals felt that current government rules paint every school as the villain. “It’s like we are held guilty till we prove otherwise. Fee increments are always done within the parameters set by government, so the average is 15%. But the government does not take into account people who don’t pay fee at all using political clout. Then there are who pay around 80% or so and ask for leniency on the remaining amount. Then, we have free admissions being done under Right To Education (RTE) Act for which the reimbursements are just 20% of our normal fee, and that too is not paid on a regular basis,” a principal said.The association, which is consulting its legal team on how to legally challenge the government, felt the current environment is becoming challenging for schools to operate. “There is increased interference by the government over smallest of issues. Education officials will send us notices by the dozen based on frivolous complaints from NGOs and parents. We are discussing on what points we can challenge this increased interference by the government, since we will always be looked at suspiciously,” a principal said.Another principal in the same group felt that government should empower schools to recover fees. “When they can restrict us for increasing fee, why not give us powers to recover our dues. Many schools in our group have over Rs25 lakh as pending dues from parents. If these are allowed to be recovered with legal backing then at least schools won’t have to scour for methods to meet expenses,” she said.