The Congress on Monday slammed the Haryana government over the steep hike in fee for medical, nursing and paramedical courses under Pt BD Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, (UHSR), alleging that the BJP government has imposed an “anti-student” financial burden on lakhs of youth pursuing professional education.Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda termed the revised fee structure with a massive hike a setback for thousands of medical students of the state and demanded its immediate withdrawal. (File)Leader of Opposition and former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda termed the revised fee structure with a massive hike a setback for thousands of medical students of the state and demanded its immediate withdrawal.“The government’s decision of fee-hike has come as a jolt to the youths, who aspire to become doctors, nurses and pharmacists. The government has imposed a massive hike of up to 400% in examination fee for medical and paramedical courses at the University of Health Sciences, Rohtak, effective from August 1,” Hooda said during an interaction with mediapersons at Rohtak.“The government has made it clear that it intends to turn the education system into a system of exploitation by drastically increasing late fee and penalties. The BJP must withdraw this decision,” he added.Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Singh Surjewala said, “The BJP government has imposed a massive fee hike of up to 400%. This decision of the BJP government will directly break the backs of poor and middle-class students by making professional education even more expensive.”According to the revised examination fee notification issued by UHSR, students of B.Sc Nursing, Post Basic B.Sc Nursing, B.Pharmacy, BPT, paramedical and other bachelor-level paramedical programmes will now have to pay ₹4,500 per year for annual programmes and ₹2,250 per semester for semester-oriented courses.For MBBS and BDS students, the annual examination fee has been revised to ₹10,000 per year. The university has also revised examination fees for postgraduate programmes. PG Diploma courses and MD, MS, MDS, M.Ch and DM programmes will attract an annual examination fee of ₹20,000.The notification also introduces a stringent late-fee regime as students submitting examination forms between the 11th and 15th day after the opening of the examination portal will have to pay an additional ₹5,000.With the approval of the competent authority, examination forms may be accepted up to 72 hours before the examination on payment of an additional ₹10,000, while under special circumstances forms may be accepted up to 24 hours before the examination on payment of ₹20,000, subject to proper justification and supporting documents. The university has clarified that no examination forms will be accepted after the commencement of examinations.The Congress has demanded an immediate rollback of the revised fee structure, alleging that the decision would place an unnecessary financial burden on students and their families.