Maharashtra: Final draft of bill to regulate coaching classes ready

The committee working on the Maharashtra Private Coaching Regulation Bill 2018 has recently submitted a final draft of the bill to the government with some of the contentious provisions in the old draft being scrapped.

A final draft of the bill was submitted to the government after a series of deliberations in the committee last week. 

Some of the contentious provisions in the old draft including the regulation of coaching class fees by the government, classes having to give 5 per cent of their income to the government and reserving seats for students from poor economic backgrounds have been scrapped in the final draft.

"The committee has finally come up with a solid policy without having some of the earlier provisions to which there were objections raised. In some places, we have modified the norms in the first draft. For instance, instead of giving 5 per cent of the total income to the government the new draft states classes should give 1% of their profits and so on" said Jagdish Walavalkar, a class owner and a member of the committee.

The final draft of the bill also excludes the punitive action against coaching classes for not adhering to norms laid in the policy. Class owners would face 2 years rigorous imprisonment for not abiding by the norms laid in the initial draft.

"We have also recommended certain things to the government like having a dedicated council for coaching institutes and bringing all competitive and professional classes in the ambit of the bill" added Walavalkar.