Still awaiting Jharkhand education minister Jagarnath Mahto’s fee waiver of private schools for three months, agitated parents and members of the Jharkhand Abhibhavak Sangh have now decided to resort to a different route.

Signature campaigns, postcard campaigns involving the chief minister’s office and prime minister’s office and a mass movement are what the state government can expect in the next few months.

Parents in the association have also decided to approach the judiciary.

Though parents have agreed to pay the tuition fees since all schools have been conducting online classes on various platforms, they have opposed annual charges, fees for extra-curricular activities, transportation charges and other miscellaneous charges.

Although private school management across the state have said that waiving the fee hasn’t been an option as they too have liabilities, parents cry foul as many are facing salary cuts and job losses due to the lockdown.

However, parents and members of the Jharkhand Abhibhavak Sangh expressed anguish against Mahto, for sharing his statements of fee waiver on social media platforms and through the media, without issuing an official notification.

When founder president of Jharkhand Abhibhavak Sangh Ajay Rai spoke to Mahto on Friday, he said the education department is still in consultation with the law department.

“We are first expanding our association and will start signature campaigns and postcard campaigns so that it reaches the right ears. There have been so many meetings and yet nothing official has come from the government. Parents have been receiving calls and messages from these private schools for payment of fees,” said Rai.

Most private schools in Ranchi, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad and other cities had agreed to provide a time frame till August to pay the fees.