NEW DELHI : On April 30 Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh approved a 100 per cent hike in tuition fees for the Indian Institutes of Technology, nearly doubling the amount that students must pay to get admission to the IITs. 

The IIT entrants will be charged Rs 25,000 per semester when they join this year -- and there is no concession for the ones joining the the new IITs in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar. 

The bureaucracy — including higher education secretary R.P. Agrawal — had cleared the proposal earlier, but had not received the crucial approval required from Arjun to officially sanction the hike. Arjun, it is learnt, has been weighing the political ramifications of a fee hike in the IITs in the lead-up to a slew of state elections and the 2009 general election. 

The IITs are being officially informed about the minister’s approval, MHRD sources said. 

Arjun, it is learnt, has however asked all the IITs to ensure that students already studying at the institutes are not asked to pay more, in his notes alongside the approval. 

The approval from the minister comes just a month after the six Indian Institutes of Management announced a hike in their fees. Despite opposition from Arjun, most of the IIMs refused to withdraw the announced increase. 

The prized B.Tech or undergraduate engineering course at the IITs will cost a student Rs 2 lakh over eight semesters — two a year — in tuition fees, apart from the amount required for hostel accommodation. 

The four-year undergraduate course costs Rs 1.08 lakh in tuition fees at present. The corresponding fees for postgraduate students will go up from Rs 54,000 to Rs 1 lakh. 

Unlike the IIMs, which have been raising fees almost every year, the IITs last raised their fees in 1998. 

In 2005, the IITs first complained to the ministry about dwindling funds and then sought a raise in fees. 

Earlier this year, Dr C.N.R. Rao, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Scientific Advisory Council, approved the proposed hike. Rao is a key member of the standing committee of the IIT council — which also consists of IIT directors — and chairs the 
body’s meetings when its chairman, Arjun, is unable to attend.