These included considering coaching classes as fire and health hazards and directing the Income Tax department to look into the enormous black money generated in the business of private tutorials.

``Our delegation comprising over 30 students met Deshmukh and submitted a memorandum urging the state to make it compulsory for all the coaching classes to obtain a no objection certificate (NOC) from the Fire Brigade authorities. Almost all such private classes are closetted and cramped, with just one narrow entry or exit. If a fire is to start here, hundreds of students could die due to suffocation,'' said South Mumbai President of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Ashish Waghe.

Recalling the recentLake View restaurant fire tragedy in Thane, he added that at times, there are over 100 students in one small room, with four air-conditioners working overtime. ``If the ACs burst, it could start a short-circuit. Even the ventilation is extremely poor, and there is hardly any fresh air,'' he pointed out.

Deshmukh welcomed this suggestion and said he would be doing the needful. ``Apart from BJYM, the Forum For Fairness In Education has also requested us to investigate how much black money is generated in such establishments. With people taking active interest in our campaign, we will be able to curb the menace soon, '' claimed Deshmukh.

However, a delegation of the Mumbai Junior College Teachers' Union (MJCTU), led by Professor Mukund Andhalkar, also requested the minister to look at the issue from the viewpoint of the teachers. Since teachers' salaries are insufficient, they should be allowed to work for coaching classes as long as they do not neglect their college work, pointed out the union.

Somestudents and parents also discreetly complained about certain college and engineering teachers who were `holding students to ransom' by forcing them to join their private tutorials or face poor performance in the examinations'.