Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati has been demanding reservation for Other Backward Classes (OBCs) in the private sector, but her own government has scrapped the 'zero fee scheme' for OBC students in the Lucknow University. Following the government directive, the university administration on Wednesday asked over 4,000 OBC students to deposit their fees for the term they had studied.

These students had taken admission in various courses of the varsity in 2007-08 academic session that ended last month. The fees range from Rs.1,600-2,000 annually in under-graduate courses and Rs.1,800-Rs.2,500 in postgraduate courses.

The university administration has even withheld the final exam results of these students. "The results of these students will be announced only after they deposit their fees in the varsity exchequer," varsity spokesperson Manoj Dixit told on Thursday.

The zero-fee scheme was introduced in June 2004 by then UP chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav for the students coming from families with annual income below Rs.100,000.

The government had then agreed to bear the fees of the OBC students.

The scheme was implemented for the 2007-08 academic session after several reminders to the government by Mulayam Singh.

Senior university officials said the government had scrapped the scheme to rescue the varsity from financial deficit, which was around Rs.85 million annually. IANS