Parents protest outside the main gate of De Nobili School CMRI in Dhanbad against excessive fee hike on Friday morning. Students (below) and teachers missed school due to the protest. Pictures by Gautam Dey

Dhanbad, Jan. 30: The fee hike issue of De Nobili School CMRI snowballed into a major controversy today with hundreds of parents taking to the streets on Friday morning and staging a lockout of the school building.

The protest forced the district administration to intervene and later come out with an order staying the fee hike carried out by the school management.

About 500 parents reached the school at 8am as per their pre-scheduled plan and staged a dharna outside the campus, preventing students and teachers from entering the campus. No classes were held today.

About 100 guardians forced themselves into the school raising slogans against the school management.

They locked the main building of the school and forced students who had arrived by school buses to return by the same bus.

Soon, district education officer Rajkumar Singh, district superintendent of education Ratan Kumar Mahavar and administrative officials, including the Dhanbad circle officer and a large team of policemen, reached the spot to pacify the protesters.

But the agitators refused to relent, demanding immediate rollback of the fee hike.

Gauging the gravity of the situation the officials held a closed-door meeting with the school management and directed them to resolve the issue amicably in consultation with the guardians.

The officials assured the parents that the school had decided to reconsider its decision. They also handed over the copy of the administrative order according to which a stay has been imposed on the fee hike.

The letter issued by the DEO termed the hike carried by the school as illegal. The letter also raised objections about the unilateral decision of the school to raise fees without consulting the state government as prescribed under the provisions.

A 17-member panel of guardians was also constituted during the occasion under the leadership of Ranvijay Kumar, which was authorised to hold talks with the school administration to solve the issue amicably.