NEW DELHI: The deadlock over fee hike in hostels in Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) continued on Saturday despite efforts made by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) to resolve the issue. On Friday, the meeting between the High Power Committee of MHRD and the students’ representatives of JNU had ended. However, students’ leaders of the university told The Sunday Guardian that their protest will continue till the demand for a complete roll back of the hostel manual is met.
Aishe Ghosh, president of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU), told The Sunday Guardian: “The MHRD committee can only recommend their suggestions to the university administration. We hope that something positive comes out of these meetings with the high-level MHRD committee. However, we will continue our protests till the hike in fees is revoked.”
On the other hand, the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) is also protesting against the fee hike, though separately from the JNUSU. Anima Sonkar, general secretary of ABVP Delhi unit, told The Sunday Guardian: “The ABVP doesn’t want a dialogue with the MHRD; we want release of funds by the ministry as the hostel fees are being hiked due to lack of funds.”
Sonkar also said that the ABVP will continue its protests till the administration rolls back the hostel manual completely. Asked about the reason for protesting separately from the JNUSU, Sonkar said, “The JNUSU has added political colour to the issue of fee hike. They have now moved away from the core issue and have started absurd demands like bringing back Article 370 etc. This is why we decided to distance ourselves from them. We will run a parallel protest to demand the roll back of the increased fees.”
According to sources, the recommendations of the high power committee of MHRD may come on Monday. Though the committee will table its recommendations before the JNU administration, it is the administration which will take the final call.
Protests against proposed fee hikes in JNU have been going on for nearly a month. It has impacted academic activities of the university. Though the university administration had earlier announced partial roll back in hike in fees, students have been demanding a complete roll back of the hike in fees that the administration has proposed in its new hostel manual.