To this effect, a committee has been formed to be chaired by former bureaucrat Kumud Bansal and comprising 18 other members. "The first of the formal meeting of the 19 members was held on June 25 to decide the plan of action in Mumbai," Vikhe Patil told TOI.

A government resolution (GR) was issued on May 8, which has names of all the members of the committee. The GR also mentions that the committee will decide upon the parameters for increasing fees and making recommendations to the government on the school fee structure.

The city will be represented in the panel by Vidya Yeravdekar, joint director, Symbiosis Society, R P Joshi, principal, Muktangan English Medium School and Ram Panse, principal of city-based Bharat Vidyalaya.

However, as of now, members have been asked to not divulge any details to the media. Announcements regarding the process will be made once a concrete plan of action is in place.

"While the Shikshan Shulka Samiti regulates the fee for higher and technical education institutions, there is no such regulatory body for school education," said Vikhe Patil.

This body will not only regulate state board schools, but also CBSE, ICSE and IB schools. Accordingly, the three boards are being represented by K B Kushal, divisional director, DAV School, Pawan Podar, president, Podar Education Trust and Farzana Dohadwala respectively in the panel.

The committee also has the task of defining a policy for pre-primary schools in the state. It may be noted that the government had conducted a series of meetings in various regions of the state to seek recommendations from schools and non-governmental organisations on formulating policies for pre-primary schools in May.

Besides, various experts in education including Mohan Awte, former chairman of the Maharashtra State Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education, Rajan Phansalkar, former director of education are also part of the committee.

The new fee regulatory committee will check schools' balance sheets in order to gauge whether the fee charged is justified.

Bhalchandra Desle, director of education (secondary and higher secondary), is the member secretary of this committee.