Mangalore: Active student members of ABVP staged a vociferous demonstration against state Government here for increasing the fee structure for Engineering, Medical and Dental Courses. The protesters demanded immediate withdrawal of hike in admission fee for these professional courses.

Their human chain formations disrupted the city traffic movements for a few minutes at KPT circle on highway. The shouting students said that continuous increase in fee hurt the poor students. The present fee hike was as much as 10%. The students threatened to intensify their agitation if the admission fee rise was not rolled back.

They accused the Government of surrendering to private manage-ments’ whims and fancies. The Government quota of seats had come down from 85% in 1994 to 42% now among private colleges in medicine. The decrease is to 45% in engineering and 35% in dental courses.

Chinmaya Rai, secretary, ABVP city unit, said poor students cannot think of becoming a doctor or engineer these days.